


Soul Link

by Triple_Deluxe



Category: One Piece
Genre: Action/Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-08-23 04:40:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 90,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20236885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Triple_Deluxe/pseuds/Triple_Deluxe
Summary: Water's sweet, blood's thicker, but there's a reason why flies prefer honey over vinegar. Sailing endlessly but nowhere, a small group of people realise how important these kinds of bonds are, and what they can do for others. This Ship of Dreams? It's more than just a ship; it's a home. And with family like this, what's not to love?___________________________________________A TDXperience in which the future Straw Hats find themselves on a ship upon falling asleep during their early childhood. What better to do than to use this gift to break the universe in two?





	1. Soul King

**Author's Note:**

> For those of you wondering, this is a reupload of my current project on FanFiction.net. Decided to post this here in case some people may be interested in reading.
> 
> A fair warning, though: As I stated on FanFiction.net, I am an extremely simple and/or blunt person, and as such it may appear in my writing. If that may bother you, I apologise. Though since nobody's complained so far, I'll just consider it paranoia until I get told otherwise.
> 
> One last thing: I am incredibly infrequent in this kind of stuff. Be it I'm not in the mood, HSC taking time, writer's block...it all sucks. But hey, the show must go on and all that. So yeah, don't expect a HIATUS without an explanation, but don't expect constant, orderly updates either. I just publish the chapter the moment I'm done with it, and leave it to be so.

DATE: MARCH 25th, 2019 (25/3/19)

* * *

**SPLASH!**

That was what echoed as Brook's body landed in this water, which just...appeared out of nowhere.

He could have sworn that he had fallen asleep just a few minutes ago, peacefully drifting away in a warm bed after practicing the violin for the day. Then, out of nowhere, this skeleton with a giant afro comes by in a pitch-black void, talking to him as if he knows who he was. Something about "Doing it again," and "Find the Sunny!". It even had the same name as his! And yet, he had never seen the thing in his life!

Then again, he had never seen a live skeleton move and talk before, but that wasn't the point!

Now, he was just swimming in yet another pitch-black void, water surrounding him. He couldn't see anything beyond the water, nor himself; this hollow ocean seemed to go on endlessly. He was keeping himself afloat now, but he knew that, if he didn't find land or at least something floating soon, his strength would eventually give in, and he would soon sink into the bottom of this lifeless realm. And he _still_ doesn't know how this all happened!

Did he mention he was barely a decent swimmer, too?

'How is this even happening…?' The young boy thought to himself. 'Better yet...why? I always listened to my family, practiced my music precisely and on time, helped anyone in need…' He just couldn't put his finger on it...he had lived a rather peaceful and kind youth, so he couldn't believe this was out of some sort of revenge. 'Then...why am I here?'

After about an hour of just cruising forward, looking for a slither of hope, he just...stopped. I mean, think about it; you fall asleep after a progressive, healthy day, you end up in a colourless realm filled half-full, and you have no clue as to how you can find a way back out.

Was this punishment for being born? Was this a prank from a magician? Was this purgatory? Considering how his stamina wore out ten minutes ago and was still overclocking from constant swimming and even more thinking, he couldn't be bothered to come up with an answer.

His body needed sleep. 'Ironic.' he thought. He slowly began to sink beneath the water, though he could barely tell. His skin started to wrinkle, his body slipping on the ice called consciousness, feeling...cold. Grasped by the hand of fate, a cold feeling enveloped him. No hope. No warmth. No...anything.

"..ook….et u…."

His ears pricked up a bit. Or at least what little of him was awake. He heard something. Something calling his name. It was small, quiet, but it was there.

Or was it?

Was it just him being tempted, hoping something could help him from this pathetic state he was in? Was it really just a farce?

"..ome o...roo..!...et u…"

He couldn't tell anymore. And odds are, he wouldn't be able to swim up in time. Hell, he couldn't even see anything.

"Brook! Come on, already!"

Brook shook a bit. Why was it so much clearer now? It sounded like a child almost...Like a young girl calling for help. But where would it be coming from? He was probably 20,000 leagues under by now.

"Come on, Brook! Don't die on me now! Not now…"

It sounded desperate. Did the voice know him? Did he know it? It didn't sound familiar. Most girls his age ran away from him. Then again, he _did_ sometimes get too close for comfort (not that he'd ever admit that was his fault). But this? He honestly didn't know _what_ to make of it?

No harm in checking, right?

With what little strength his small body had, he tried pulling himself up to the surface. Pulling on an invisible rope, climbing the middle of the wall to the clouds above, seeking the air like, believe it or not, he depended on it.

His eyes began to flutter, his throat croaking, his ears ringing. And not from the voice either. He was almost out of energy. Almost dead in his own sleep. And yet somehow, he couldn't bring himself to wake up.

Was this whole thing a nightmare tugging at his strings? Was the puppeteer messing with his emotions for their personal enjoyment? So many questions, not a single answered yet…

"Keep going, Brook! You're almost there!"

And then there was that voice. Despite the void surrounding him, that was the biggest mystery. Who the bloody hell was it?! He had no clue as to who it could be. Was this the puppeteer encouraging the struggle to go on? Or was it someone trying to help him out of it? By his very afro, he was done with questions. He just wanted out!

Which is why he was surprised he could breathe in again.

He sucked in all the air he could. He took it all in to the point where it almost hurt his lungs. If he were down there a second longer, he may very well have been done for, left to sink to the bottom. Or was there even a bottom?

After gaining enough air to think again, he shook the water out of his soaked afro and looked for land. He _did_ move somewhere, right? 'I'll worry about the clothes later.' he concluded. Priorities.

He looked left, nothing. Just black and some ripples. He looked right. Nothing. Exactly the same as before. Just a seamless horizon stitched unto itself. He looked behind and saw a giant brig sloop with a lion afront it.

"**HUH?!**"

This caught him extremely off guard. Why was there a giant ship here now? Where was it before? He couldn't have been drowning for that long, right? Wait. What about the girl's voice from earlier? Was it on this ship? If so, then how could he hear it so clearly? The ship looked like the deck was stories high, and he was pretty far submerged.

It was a good thing someone threw a ladder down port side because he needed answers. He started to swim over to it, albeit with difficulty due to how worn out his body was, and reached the rope ladder, staring him head-on. As he grasped it, he _was_ going to climb it, but it started pulling itself. No, wait. That's not possible. Someone must be up there pulling him up from the top.

'Wait a minute,' Brook thought to himself. 'Is somebody else in my dream?' This left him uneasy. Is this person luring him into a trap, just to shank him in the back? Or did they truly mean to help him, and he was just overthinking things? Yeah, that was probably it. He was fine. Hell, he was just appreciative that they even came in the first place. Nobody would want to be a soggy corpse at the bottom of the ocean, right?

As he was about a metre or two away from the top when the pulling stopped. This shocked him for a bit, leaving him confused. Why not just pull him up to the railing? For now, he simply cast it aside and kept climbing. It was a miracle his glasses hadn't fallen off yet. Considering he took them off before he slept, that was a bit off…

After he climbed the rest of the way, he turned around to pull up the rest of the ladder (no point in leaving it dangling overboard) and turned around to thank whoever helped him.

Except nobody was there.

The ship itself looked gorgeous; a whole lawn, wide open spaces, two strong-looking masts, a MASSIVE Crow's Nest, as well as the rest of the ship in the back behind those doors and the veranda. But it wasn't the details that caught his attention. It was how nobody was there when he got up. He knew _someone_ had to be up here; that ladder didn't just hoist itself onto the deck. Maybe they were pulling a prank on him to make him think there were ghosts, like that extremely tall skeleton from before. Or maybe they were just shy?

He couldn't be bothered to look, though. He was dreadfully exhausted from the whole ordeal. Sleeping, only to talk with a huge skeleton, fall into a sea of literally nothing, almost drown in his own sleep he can't escape, and end up on a giant ship with, supposedly, nobody on it. He strolled over to the grass below the mast, which strangely had a jolly roger on it. Again, he would panic, but he can't be bothered right now. He just needed sleep within his sleep.

"What is even going on…?" Brook said to himself before falling asleep once and for all.

* * *

"_Hello?" A young boy called out. He had been wandering around for about two minutes now in this pitch-black place, with no signs of anything. All there was here was his single bed, and himself. What creeped him out at first, though, was that he was in his attire from earlier today rather than his pyjamas, being his signature purple glasses with yellow rims, a purple t-shirt with a treble on it, loose black pants with yellow stripes, and orange shoes._

_"Helloooooo?" He called out again. "Is anybody here?" He didn't really expect to see anybody in this void, which seemed to have absolutely _nothing_ at all as far as the eye could see. But hey, it's worth a try, right?_

"Yohohoho...yohoho ho_…"_

_His head snapped, looking around desperately. The voice had sent a chill down his spine, but it was...soothing. Did they even match each other? Was that a thing?_

"Yohohoho...yohoho ho…"

_It was...singing? Was it singing a song? He'd never heard of it before, but it did make him curious._

"Gather up all of the crew, it's time to ship out Binks' brew…"

_Brook couldn't put his finger on it, but he felt like he had heard this song before. Probably from the bar just down the road; the men there enjoyed singing to a certain song, he recalled. Maybe this was it._

"Sea wind blows, to where, who knows? The waves will be our guide."

_Whatever this song was, he liked it. It was a melody that entrailed pride, as well as kinship among those they sing it by. However, it seemed like the voice had a...solemn? Was that it? A solemn tone, as if reminiscing such times. Having done it before and cherishing such memories. Now that he thought about it, the singing was rather smooth, too._

_He then proceeded to run into something in front of him, causing him to land on his butt._

"_Ow…" he muttered to himself. After shaking off the impact, he stood up and check what he ran into, only to find a pair of green pants. Long, skinny pants. As he looked further up, he saw a brown leather belt, a black blazer with the phrase "Soul King" on it, written in a strange, almost dancing font, what seemed to be a white dress shirt underneath, accompanied by a red tie, black fingerless leather gloves, and a purple felt fedora with a white feather out the side, sitting atop a giant afro._

_What he didn't expect was this tall man to be a freaking _skeleton_ of all things holy._

"_Yohohohohoho!" The damn thing laughed._

"_**AAAAAAAAAGGHHHH!**__" A scream of sheer fear was all Brook could let out, backing away as fast as his little hands could drag him._

_But then it spoke again, walking at a similarly brisk pace. "Ah, young man," It spoke. "I'm so terribly sorry for being in your path of wondering like that. Please forgive my brashness." Looking at the skeleton, its outfit was as he saw before, but the bones around the neck (or really, spine), the head itself, and the fingers under the fingerless gloves. Yep, this was a skeleton alright. It had a pretty good sense of fashion, too._

_Wait. Did it just apologise? And why was he leaning over in forgiveness?_

_Brook immediately sat himself up. "O-o-oh n-no," Brook stuttered, still a little jittery from the whole experience. "I-it was m-my fault f-fo-for not p-paying a-a-attention t-to begin with…" He bowed his own head in apology. "Sorry a-about that…"_

_The skeleton then looked up in awe at him, before...laughing. "Yohohohohohoho!" This confused Brook far more than he already was. What was so funny about him apologising for running into him? _He_ was paying attention, after all. "It's just as I remember when I was a young lad. Oh, how nostalgic." Hold on. This thing had an age?_

_Now Brook was curious. "Wait," he said, getting the skeleton man's attention. "How old are you, exactly? Who even are you?"_

_The skeleton suddenly had a much more hostile aura around him, glaring at Brook. It terrified him to the core._

"_You have a lot of nerve asking that, young man," he muttered, head lowered down to Brook's level. "My heart sinks at such a brash request." Brook was now convinced he had asked the wrong thing, and that now he was going to die._

_'Dammit.'_

"_Except I don't have a heart!" The skeleton suddenly exclaimed, rather jollily at that, before laughing. "Skull Joke!"_

_Brook himself felt frustrated that this whole thing was just a ruse, but he couldn't help but laugh at the joke himself. Why was it even funny? He didn't know, but he liked it. Might have to do that himself in the _actual_ afterlife._

"_Ah, but to answer your question;" The skeleton then announced. "My name is Brook, though many know me as the Soul King!" he then started laughing a bit to himself; he never thought he'd get to say that to anybody ever again. It was almost refreshing._

_The young lad, though, was really confused. Why did he have the same name as him? And in his own dream, no less?_

_Young Brook was a little tense now. "Do I…" he almost whispered to the skeleton Brook. "...know you?"_

_The latter simply stood there. "I'm not sure how to answer someone else knowing me." He responded. "Although, I do know _you_ rather well, if I do say so myself."_

_This put the afro-child on edge. "Huh?!" He exclaimed in shock. "H-how do you know me?!"_

_Skeleton-Brook simply tipped his hat. "I can't say; it would reveal too much,' he said, almost sadly. Soon after, though, his head shot back up. 'Although, I can say this, so listen carefully:" He then cleared his throat (or whatever the spine was there to do) before speaking again._

"_**When you land, find the 'Sunny'. You'll be safe there.**__"_

_This left child-Brook...unbelievably confused. 'The 'Sunny'? What even was that?! A ship made of the Sun to _burn me alive_?! And…'_ _he looked worried now. "Pardon me, Mr. Brook, " he asked the sack of bones. "What do you mean by 'when I land?'"_

_The skeleton looked unmoved, almost like he expected the question. "Oh, you'll find out soon enough." He then turned around, starting to walk away. After walking for about five or six seconds, he stopped again. "One more thing; it may take a while before anything actually happens with anybody else; you'll be alone for some time, and for that I apologise." He sighed to himself. "By the time you finally meet them, you'll almost be my age," He chuckled. "But who knows? You may see someone before then. Maybe even here…and then you'll be able to do it all again..." He then kept walking, leaving child-Brook to his own thoughts._

_Said child still also had one more thing to ask. "Wait!" He cried out. "How old are you?" He didn't know about what the corpse meant by 'them', nor 'doing it again', but this was the more important of the two._

_Suddenly, a light started to surround the area, slowly turning from a pitch-black to a pale white. Brook himself had started to glow and was now having a panic attack._

_The skeleton turned behind to look at the glowing child he himself was beginning to vanish. "I'm 91." he answered before disintegrating into pure light._

_The young child gasped. 'WHAT?!' He couldn't process how old the skeleton man truly was. And, if what it said was true, he would have to really wait that long?! AND FOR WHAT?!_

_Soon enough, though, the light enveloped Brook, too, before the whole void was as white as snow._


	2. Taking Advantage

DATE: MAY 15th, 2019 (15/5/19)

* * *

Last night for Brook had been...odd, to say the least. He couldn't seem to find the word to say the most without sounding like a freelancing sailor.

He wakes up in the middle of literally nowhere, talked to a long-as-hell skeleton who talked like it was Brook's long lost Uncle (hell, it even had the same name as him!), fell into an invisible ocean in the exact same void, nearly drowned after an hour of swimming, got woken up by a girl's voice which he _really shouldn't have heard_, finds this giant ship with a lion figurehead sitting conveniently behind him, gets pulled up a ladder by seemingly nobody, falls asleep on the grass(?) of a deck DURING HIS SLEEP…

...only to wake up soaking. And for some godforsaken reason, it wasn't even sweat, but saltwater. He even triple-checked, appalled and confused. And why was he wearing day clothes?! Wait, why were his pyjamas neatly folded on the end of his bed?!

Something was up. But the tip of his tongue couldn't seem to find why, dry as a desert. As such, here he was; a wet bed not even from his pants, wearing the same clothes as yesterday, with quite possibly the most sane, yet simultaneously unorthodox fever dream possibly ever. And _goddamn_, did it hurt his head.

Even when explaining this to his father, he merely said "Brook, you may simply feel unwell. Overworking your violin practise, perhaps?" Brook knew this couldn't be it; the whole thing was far too surreal for the answer to be that simple. However, he simply told his father that it was likely that was it (despite loving it immensely, as well as music in general), since he _did_ practise violin for 2-3 hours during most days of the week. He even wanted to believe this himself, just to forget what happened. Maybe it was just being stressed out from this much work. It was a wonder how he'd never gotten tendinitis even once in his life.

"_...and you'll be able to do it all again…"_

The problem was that, whenever he thought he'd gotten it out of his head, that line would just come back into his head. He still couldn't figure it out. 'Do _what_ again?! What am I meant to be doing?! And why would I have to wait almost 80 YEARS FOR IT?!'

He didn't even realise during his spasm that he had snapped the bow in half. He could only sigh at that, too, before going to grab a spare.

Later that night, he had gotten into bed, grabbing the pyjamas that were left there this morning by...whoever put them there. Likely his mother. As he climbed into the bed, he checked to make sure nobody was there, the window was shut and barricaded, the door was locked (much to his father's charagin at first), and that he and his bed were neat and untouched by anything.

"Alright," A tired Brook muttered to himself. "Last night was last night. Tonight will be better, I'm sure." He then tucked his head into the pillow, pulling up the soft blankets coaxing him, before falling into the slumber he had longed for after today's hangover from last time.

After a few hours, he suddenly needed to stir around a bit. He felt a bit...cold. Then again, considering he lived in the southeast part of the West Blue, this made sense. But didn't he have a blanket on?

As he reached for it, he couldn't seem to find it anywhere. All he could find was...grass? Really soft grass.

His eyes immediately shot open. He looked around him, seeing a lawn of fresh, lime green grass, leading up to a small veranda, a giant wooden pole, the back of a mane that looked like the sun, and above all else, pitch-black darkness as far as the eye could see.

He was back in the void, except he was on the ship where he crashed rather than in the water. (At least he got his pyjamas this time.)

Brook wanted to scream. He didn't want to come back here, despite being grateful that he was put on the deck this time. He wanted to be back in his warm bed back home in the West Blue, not on a brig sloop in this sea of nothingness. He wanted to yell at the heavens for putting him through this yet again.

So as he stood himself up, that's exactly what he did.

"**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**

After he let that out, he collapsed back on the deck, his throat burning away as hard as his poor voice box. He was already tired, and he didn't even know anymore whether or not that was a good thing.

He didn't even know what this ship was. Or who it even belonged to. To be honest, just being there terrified him. There are likely other people on this ship. No, there _definitely_ were. And they could get the jump on him at any given moment! He'd be dead in an instant!

But wait. This was a dream. And he was on a ship in the middle of gobsmack nowhere. And there was what the skeleton said the night before.

"_When you land, find the 'Sunny'. You'll be safe there."_

Was this the 'Sunny' that it had talked about? Was that the name of the ship? And how would he be safe here? Oh wait, he'd be out of the water. Nevermind.

He got up after a bit, throat still a bit sore from screaming earlier. "Hellooooooo?" This was further proven from just how hoarse he sounded when he called out like that. "Anybody here?"

When nobody responded for a good fifteen seconds, Brook figured he'd take the initiative. If he was going to be here for what was likely every night, he might as well look around and see what's here, no?

He got up, walking across the grass to the door upstairs. Holy hell, the grass was soft. 'Is this real grass?' Brook thought to himself. 'I thought it was just for aesthetic.' By the time he had got that out of the way, he was already climbing the stairs up to the entrance inside the ship. He stepped through the door, trying to explore what he could before he woke up; best know where everything is for future reference.

* * *

**10 Years since finding the Sunny**

* * *

Sweat went down Brook's neck, as he tried to carefully block the movements from his opponents' strikes. He was currently training in swordsmanship under a kingdom a whiles away from his home. To be specific, he was training in fencing, and to be frank, he was not the fastest learner. Then again, it had only been three weeks since he started.

"Come now, Brook!" His mentor/opponent ushered, swiping at Brook's midsection again, only for Brook to parry it again. The mentor was well built, about 6'3" (though Brook was _still_ taller), broad shoulders, strong arms and legs, the whole shebang. He was wearing a protective suit, similar to Brook was, though it could be seen he had a lavender suit underneath. He also wore black leather gloves on his hand, while Brook simply had the protective back-hand pads provided by the kingdom.

"You must have more confidence in your swordplay," The mentor took another jab towards Brook's right rib. "And besides, you're far too defensive. Sooner or later, you'll need to attack, lest you tire out and get killed!" He then swiped across Brook's chest with enough force to knock the latter down rather easily. Brook had always been extremely light. And skinny to boot. His mentor now stood above him, his épée pointing between Brook's eyes. "We wouldn't want that to happen, now would we?" His eyes showed both empathy for wanting Brook to better himself, and yet apathy for showing this wouldn't be an easy road, nor would he go easy on him under any circumstance.

Brook merely chuckled as he pushed the épée away from his face, standing back up and dusting off his training uniform. "Yes," he replied, a bit void. "I suppose nobody would want to die so easily. Sorry, Pierre."

Pierre simply gave him a small smile. "All is well, Brook," he assured the tallest nineteen year-old he'd ever seen, hand on his tiny shoulder. "All you need to do is keep training. Work on your balance with your sabre, uprise more confidence into your offensive capabilities, and I'm certain you'll do just fine."

As Pierre walked away to instruct another student, Brook could only sigh to himself. No matter what he wanted to do, he kept feeling too scared to move into a offensive position. Was it fear of pain? Of dying? No, wait, everyone has that. Then what was it holding him back? A lack of skill? Focus?

Brook shoved these out of his mind for now, opting to go out for the day to see what was at the market near the institution.

As Brook woke up on the Sunny that night, he sat in his cot that he chose in what seemed to be the Men's Quarters. He tried thinking about what he could do tomorrow to improve. After all, he had been spending each night here for the past ten years, doing whatever, be it dance around the deck, looking back over a part of the ship, or even simply sleeping more. Somehow, when he woke up, he never felt tired, no matter what he had done that night.

"Maybe I could cast aside all doubts and strike when possible?" Brook questioned. "No, too risky," He went back to pondering. "Perhaps watch their movement and find their flaws in their own posture? No, I'd still be too much on the defensive. Besides, what's the point of exploiting a weakness if they're already maintaining advantage?" Brook just collapsed, lying back in the cot. He couldn't seem to think of a strategy. Fortunately, he still had about 7 hours of thinking left to do before training again tomorrow. The faster he improved, the better.

"Wait a minute!" Brook shot up. "Couldn't I just train right now on Sunny?!" How had he not thought of that before?! He had been here for years on end, mostly relaxing to himself by sleeping within his sleep (he's never been tired since) or finishing a book, particularly adventure novels. How had he not thought to train?! If he could sleep here and get double the amount needed, why couldn't he just train here in his spare time?

Within mere seconds, Brook had jumped outside on deck, sabre at the ready. He quickly grabbed a training dummy he had found in the Crow's Nest a couple years back and brought it onto the main lawn, placing a wooden stick in its grasp. As Brook slowly drew a breath, he focused heavily on the dummy and where to possibly strike. He also remembered what Pierre had mentioned earlier today: posture. A crucial part to weilding a weapon, especially a blade, was the balance and focus in your stance and movements, as any wrong move could quickly leave an opening, and death could come even faster still. With this in mind, Brook tried a loose, yet poised stance; his right hand forward, sabre challenging the straw body, and his left hand behind him in an open grip. He had seen some of the other students at the institute try this with an average success rate, with his mindset being 'Why not? If it works, it works.'

* * *

**29 Years since finding the Sunny**

* * *

"CHIRP!"

Brook turned toward the tiny island whale (which was still bigger fucking huge, mind you) as the 'Little' guy wanted him to play something again. It was understandable since the Rumbar Pirates were essentially a Caribbean orchestra that could defend themselves, but the fact that this baby whale had given up on searching for its pod _just to stay with them_ was something else. It wasn't even just the music either, the whale enjoyed being with the crew within itself, be it its captain, its second in command (yours truly), or even the bloody cabin boys, this thing loved all of them. And they had barely met it a couple weeks ago, still following them through the West Blue.

"CHIRP! CHIRP!"

Brook had to bring a finger to his lips, calmly shushing the baby. "Calm down, Laboon," he chastised the whale, a small smile on his face. "Ït's still early morning; most of the crew aren't even awake yet," He turned towards the ocean ahead. They were talking about headed to the Grand LIne soon; a challenge, Yorki said. Although, it'd be a month or two away, considering where exactly they were. "We'll prepare a song later on, alright? For now, let's let everyone get some sleep. We're going to need it for the days to come."

"Chirp!" Quieter than before, Laboon seemed satisfied with that answer, smile as grand as ever.

Later that morning, everyone on board was either playing an instrument (as that was the shtick of the Rumbar Pirates), or partying to their heart's content, everyone bearing a smile on their face. At first glance, if not for the bull's skull having crossbones accompanying it, it could be seen as a ballad-for-hire. Even a flying circus if you wanted to get to the unorthodox. And yet, they still did no harm to people, only opposing crews in self defence (with a small exception here and there). To see all these smiles and laughs was nothing less than a joy to see, let alone be a part of.

And Brook couldn't ask for anything more. And as far as he could tell, Laboon felt the same way.

* * *

**2 weeks later**

* * *

Late night, most of the crew were hungover from one of their most recent celebrations; Brook's first Bounty. And if he was being honest, **฿47,000,000** was an impressive number considering he wasn't even the Captain, figuring that only the captain would get a Bounty. Maybe all that training in you-know-where was starting to pay off!

Not only that, but they were a mere couple days away from the 'Pirate's Graveyard'. Funny enough, Brook was the only crewmember still awake; never had been a heavy drinker.

Though he wasn't chirping as loudly, Laboon was also still awake, talking with Brook (or at least listening to him and chirping back). The Island Whale had learned to be a bit more quiet after Brook scolding him a couple times and a few complaints from the rest of the crew.

As we speak, Brook was going over some of the days before they met the whale. "...and then when Miles was drunk playing a trumpet, his lips somehow got stuck in it! Yohohohoho!" he silently laughed. From Laboons light chirps and massive smile, it seemed he was doing the same. "It took 2 hours to get him out. When we finally did, he had the largest lips I had ever seen! Of course, seeing as Miles has absurdly high optimism, he went around trying to kiss everyone afterwards as revenge," Brook smiled fondly at the memory. It was a good thing his main instrument was the violin. He had used a trumpet a number of times, but he couldn't bare to think about using that lip-horn _all of the time_. Then again, he managed to get blisters the size of his lens once from playing the violin for 18 hours straight. Never again.

Brook suddenly had a thought. '_Sunny,_' He had spent most of his life being on that ship throughout his dreams. Lonely as it may be, he always had time and space there to do what he pleased. He had practised both his musical talents, which caused him to become essentially the first-mate (the Rumbar Pirates had weird ground rules), as well as his swordsmanship and fighting capabilities, which not only reinforced his title, but even earned him a Bounty, which is incredibly rare for subordinates. Must have left a good impression.

He turned to Laboon, who looked up at Brook expectedly. Seems the little guy knew _him_ just as well as vice-versa always seemed. Laboon knew something was on Brooks mind, and wanted the **Humming** man to tell him what was wrong.

'He knows me just as well as I do him,' he thought to himself. '...I think I should be able to tell him, even if to just get it off of my chest.'

Brook gave the whale a small smile, It seemed...reminiscent of something. "Laboon," he spoke. "Can I tell you something personal? It's very important to me." For the first time in forever, Laboon's smile _dropped_, his mouth agape. Smart boy he was, he nodded to Brook, asking to continue. "You see, I may appear strong, or have endless musical potential," Or that's what his crew kept saying about him, ever since they had seen him defend their ship almost single handedly many times. Honestly, it annoyed him sometimes. "But I wasn't blessed with these talents," His smile grew almost tenfold. "Rather, I was blessed with something _far_ greater; something I could never be more grateful for in my life."

"Chirp!" At this point, Laboon's smile was as large as Brook's, and his tail was _wagging_ like a little puppy. It was hilariously adorable.

Now that the Island Whale was interested, he sat himself on the portside railing, getting himself comfortable. "Very well. Let me tell you about the marvelous ship known as Sunny!"

* * *

**1 week later**

* * *

What a hell of a farewell party this was.

The Rumbar Pirates had just crossed over the West Blue entrance to Reverse Mountain early this morning. They had said goodbye to Laboon the day before, hoping he'd stay for his own safety, but _lord-and-befucking-hold_, he crossed Reverse Mountain after them, earning a 'small' scar on his head. Considering he paid it almost no attention, and was rather just chirping at them in happiness, it seems that his attitude hadn't changed in the least, either not hearing their pleads to stay in the West Blue or just flat out ignoring them and going through anyway.

At that point, they just felt bad.

Come now, for the past few hours, they had been non-stop partying, playing music, drinking, the whole shebang for a musical crew like this one. Even as the galactic blanket of evening draped over the Twin Capes, they refused to stop glowing and shouting with sheer joy alone.

While most were on the shores and the ship, partying their guts over the rocks, Yorki, Brook and Laboon were currently near the lighthouse with its caretaker; a young man in his early 20s, Crocus. For the most part, the two Pirates had asked Crocus about anything he could tell them about the Grand Line, any bits of information or tools they may need, and just overall general talk. The only reason they weren't directly outside the lighthouse was because Laboon wanted to be there as well, thought he did nothing more than chirp in agreement and smile at everyone. By the time Crocus had heard about Laboon's situation, he had already taken a liking to him. "Kid's got spunk." is what he'd say.

After Crocus agreeing to take care of Laboon during their trip through the rough waters, Brook went to Laboon, leaning over the water's edge. "Listen, Laboon, there's something important we need to discuss." Ladoon was immediately all ears, as he had learned that this was when Brook was serious. "The Grand Line is a truly dangerous sea, which is why we wanted you to stay in the West Blue," He then sighed. "But since _that_ didn't work, being the little rebel you are, that's why we're asking you to stay here with Crocus at the Twin Capes until our journey comes to an end."

Laboon noticed Brook shake a bit, and as such, nudged him a little bit to get him back on track. "R-right. Sorry." He then cleared his throat. "Laboon, you know how I ate a Devil Fruit, right? The Revive Revive Fruit?" Laboon nodded slowly. He didn't know where Brook was going with this. "Well, you see, as I said, the...t-the Grand Line is a dangerous place, so we...may..._d-die_." _That_ was when the gravity of the situation hit Laboon; Brook was warning him that, try as they may, they might not make it back.

As Laboon started chirping aloud, tears starting to form, Brook tried to calm him down. "N-no, Laboon! P-please l-listen before you cry like that!" As Laboon calmed down a bit, he continued. "Now, like I said, we may die in these waters. We're only mortal, after all," He chuckled to himself. "Now then, as I said, I ate the Revive Revive fruit, so I have a theory; if I, or all of us die, and I come back to life, then I will cast aside all that I have done to come back here once again," Laboon's head propped up at this; a beacon of hope. " I swear, no matter what we encounter on these seas, no matter what challenges us, we will return, even if I have to drag my own corpse back to you," Now Brook was beginning to cry. "I-I promise to you Laboon, I will c-come back for you, n-no *sniff* no matter the odds t-that may lay against the Rumbar Pirates!"

Laboon was crying as much as Brook, and yet was smiling just as grandiose and prideful. This was a promise of their return! How could he be sad?!

Neither of them say Yorki nor Crocus approach. "You'd better keep that promise of yours," The latter threatened. "Or I'll kill your corpse myself."

Brook simply wiped his tears with his suit and smiled. "I'd rather kill myself again than go back on such a word, Crocus."

As Yorki laughed aloud, Crocus smirked. "Good. We'll be waiting."

* * *

**The next morning**

* * *

As the sun had rose, the morning waves crashed against the Red Line, loudly roaring upon the great divide. Just as loud and numerous was the groan of a couple hundred hungover sailors.

After getting a shouting from their Captain, as well as a pushing from Brook, they immediately shook themselves off and hurried everything onto the ship for their long voyage ahead. _By god_, this was going to be a hell of a time.

Already, as they had begun to raise anchor, they all said their goodbyes to both Crocus, who they were immensely grateful for the info he had given them, and to Laboon, who was pretty much one of their own.

"See ya, flower guy!"

"Thanks for the help!"

"We're in your debt!"

"Farewell, Laboon!"

"We're coming back! Just watch!"

"We won't be more than a few years! Hold on!"

"Later, little brother!"

"We'll never forget you, Laboon!"

Through all the shouting toward the two, Brook smiled before walking to the stern. "Goodbye, old friend!" He shouted to the whale. "I promise, I will see through our bond to the end. So please, wait for my return!"

"**CHIRP! CHIRP!**" Laboon basically backflipped in excitement, cheering loudly in excitement. Beside the whale, Crocus looked at Brook with a straight smile, nodding. Brook grinned eagerly in return, as the Rumbar Pirates sailed into the Grand Line and all it held within.

'Please stay strong, Laboon_,_' Brook thought to himself over the loud cheers of his crew. 'I _will _return to the Twin Capes. Not even death itself shall hold me down.'


	3. Knight of the Sea

DATE: MAY 22nd, 2019 (22/5/19)

* * *

It was a good thing that the Sunny had a near infinite supply of tea bags and freshwater for Brook to access (since it was a dream and all), otherwise odds are he'd go mad.

"Hm…" He thought to himself. "Perhaps I should try the signature earl grey from the Shishano Kingdom today. I've heard it's refreshing for the mind after a day of stress." He then turned to a smaller, red bag. "Or maybe the peach and mint refresher from the west coast of Sabaody. It almost sounds like it'll chill you down to the bone!" He put a hand to his chin. "Then again, that's all I've got left. YOHOHOHOHO!"

It had been fifteen years since the Rumbar Pirates had been ambushed in the Florian Triangle. To this day, Brook had been endlessly sailing on the carcass that was the crew's second ship. Or at least, what was left of it. After he had died, his theory on his Devil Fruit had rung true; his spirit awoke in the midst of the foggy sea, but without a trace of his own body. It had been a _year_ of searching for his body through the purple clouds of despair before he finally found something, only to find out he had taken so bloody long that his body had all but disintegrated with age, nothing but bones and an afro left (the latter was still a mystery, though Brook claimed the roots were ridiculously strong). One could also say the clothes on his back, but they had also become plenty torn as well.

Now, what was left of the second Captain of the Rumbar Pirates was a literal skeleton, tall as hell with an afro to match his personality. And frankly, all he could do to pass the time was either balance 45 and attempt to go lower, roll on the deck, cry to himself, or practise his swordplay to fight absolutely nobody. It was a good thing Sunny was there for him; otherwise, if not for the ship, he'd probably lose it. Or better yet, become depressed from sheer loneliness. And after being surrounded by nothing more than a purple fog, driftwood, and the loneliest number imaginable, that was becoming increasingly difficult to hold back.

Oh yeah, he also enjoyed making 'Skull Jokes' whenever the opportunity presented itself.

After Brook decided to give the peach-mint tea a try, he boiled the jug before setting the tea bag to sift in the flavour. He also wanted to leave it a bit longer, as he figured that both peach AND mint, together or seperate, would be much better as an iced tea. As he left it to settle, he wandered onto the deck he had known for _45 years_. Jesus Christ, it's already been that long? He sat himself down onto the bench surrounding the rear mast, bones clattering a bit.

"I wonder," He said to himself. "From all those years ago...was that really me?" He thought back to where he saw a tall stack of bones with an afro, before he found the Sunny…

...no wait, that was definitely him. The height, the hair, the whole body structure was the same as him right now, besides aging 38 years beyond now. He said then he was 91. He was 53 now. _He'd counted_. Not like there was anything else to do, though.

"…nevermind." He muttered. "Then again," He looked up to the pitch-black ceiling of this weird place in thought. "Am I to be lonely here, too? Or is this for something more…?" Brook had also thought about this as well. Was this literally him just dreaming at this point? As amazing as everything on Sunny was, being completely alone seemed kinda negligent seeing as he did that 24/7 already. Was this just a comfort zone...or was there something else to this strange dimension? "...or maybe I'm thinking about this a little too deep in the marrow." He chuckled to himself.

**SPLASH!**

_That_ caught Brooks attention. Had something fallen overboard? "Hm? How strange," He wondered aloud. "I could have sworn I moved the lawn chairs to the centre of the lawn…" And as he went to check...he did. Actually, everything aside from the ladder port side was near the vertical centre of Sunny. So what could have fallen into the water?

...hold on...was someone else here?!

Brook seemed to realise this, as a small gasp escaped his bony jaw in stutters before quickly running to the bow near the lion's figurehead. As he looked over, he couldn't see much. Just the invisible ripples of the endless void below. Was his mind trying to trick him again? Give him false hope? Because if so, that joke was in terribly poor taste. He'd been alone for fifteen years, dammit!

As soon as he saw a bit of blue come out of the invisible ocean, his hopes immediately shot up. Something _was_ here! Hu-fucking-zzah! But was it? It was a kilometre or so out, but Brook could tell it was a light blue surrounded in white. Was it wrapped in something? Was it a person? It really didn't seem like it from the colour…

It then sunk back into the ocean for whatever reason. Yep, odds are it was _someone_. Seeing as it didn't come up after about ten seconds, Brook rushed inside to grab some binoculars he found a few years back to try and see it better; hopefully they still worked.

When he got back with the pair, which had only _slightly_ rusted somehow, he looked through his hollow sockets to see if it had come back up. At first, seeing as it looked like there was nothing at all, Brook had to spend a few seconds adjusting them to be able to see before finding the ripples of the waters below. When he finally got it adjusted, looking about the horizon (or whatever it was), he couldn't seem to find anything. Just silver lines on a black canvas. Brook lowered the binoculars from his skull, frowning a bit. Was it really just a hallucination? No, it couldn't have been. He was certain that the splash came from the bow side. And it didn't sound all too close.

Suddenly, more water was heard, and Brook quickly looked through again. After a bit of searching, he eventually found something! It was definitely someone alright, but it wasn't a human; far from it, actually. It was a sky blue colour with what looked like a white kimono used for martial arts. Seemed to be a fighter, though the couple bandages across him spoke that themselves. Stocky, too. His face looked similar to that of a baby oni, with eyebrows to match. He also had scruffy brown hair. A lot of it. Also, were his hands webbed?

At that moment, excitement of somebody else aside, Brook had an epiphany. "Is that a Fish-Man?" He had heard of them before; large fish-like creatures, bipedal like humans, even speaking the same language. They were said, relative with age and training, to be ten times as strong as humans. He had also heard that they were mindless beasts torn on destroying humanity with brute force, but Brook had cast that aside. If there was one thing he had learned over the years; judging a book by its cover was downright stupid if you are not going to read it. As such, he simply kept their existence in his head, even though he'd never met one in his life, and had moved on with his own adventure.

Now, though, there was one right here, right now. It seemed to be a child, too. If anything, Brook was curious. How did it- no, _they_ \- get here? What were they like? Were they stuck here in their dreams like he was? So many questions, no answers without the Fish-Man in the water. If he remembered correctly, they were strong swimmers, too, so unless they were a Devil Fruit user, they shouldn't have any problem. Then again, if they were, they wouldn't be staying afloat right about now.

He decided to get their attention. "HELLO?!" Brook called out. "CAN YOU HEAR ME?!" The Fish-Man turned his way, only for their eyes to widen in shock, or maybe fear. Brook then remembered. "Oh, right. Skeleton." He muttered to himself. Though he was more so impressed with their line of sight. Very strong. He then yelled back to the Fish-Man, "LISTEN, I'M NOT GOING TO REAP YOUR SOUL OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT. I JUST WANT TO ASK YOU A COUPLE THINGS!"

* * *

Jinbe was...sceptical. One moment, he falls out of the sky, falls into a bunch of water in the middle of what could almost be a black box, unable to find anything below, finds himself in his kimono from earlier today, and now this giant lion ship comes out of nowhere with a _skeleton upon its front_. This...this was too much…

Nonetheless, Jinbe, was curious, but wanted to be careful. He didn't even know what species the skeleton once was. It was stupidly tall to pin down to anything. "LIKE WHAT?!" The nine-year-old yelled back. It seems he wasn't the only one wanting answers.

* * *

Brook nodded to himself. "Ah, so our vocabulary _is_ the same." Considering their voice, it seemed to be a young boy after all. "I WANT TO KNOW WHO YOU ARE, HOW YOU GOT HERE, AND IF IT WAS THE SAME WAY AS I!" Brook's response looked to be on deaf ears for a good twenty seconds. The Fish-Man nodded before he went underwater, a streak of white headed towards the Sunny. Brook sighed to himself. "Finally, some answers." He sighed, as he went to lower down the ladder he once climbed (or was yanked up, at least).

Once he felt a tug, the Fish-Man was on the ladder, climbing up. Considering he was already halfway up, he stood aside for the young lad to finish.

Once they finally got up, the Fish-Man bowed forward. "Thank you," he said. His right hand then jabbed towards the skeleton. "Now answer me; what are you, and where the hell are we?!" He outright demanded.

Brook nodded. "I do believe an explanation is in order, young man." he walked towards the Fish-Man before standing barely a couple metres in front of him. "First thing's first, it is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Fish-Man. I've never met one before, so this is rather new to me." He then chuckled a bit. "My name is Brook. The pleasure's all mine." He then bowed down, almost reaching the Fish-Man himself. Even without the top hat, or even the afro, he'd pretty tall.

The Fish-Man nodded. "Same." He also bowed. "Alright, what exactly _are_ you?"

Brook had seen this question a mile away, and the reaction to his answer was likely, too. "I am a human who died years ago before getting revived; a little late, mind you, since I died and all."

The Fish-Man reacted to the word human instantaneously, as Brook had predicted. They immediately got into a fighting stance, which...looked some kind of judo? Karate? Brook couldn't tell.

"You're a dead _human_?!" The Fish-Man demanded, heavily on guard.

Brook simply nodded. "Why yes, yes I am." He replied, before tilting his head. "Is there a problem?"

The young whale shark seemed to hesitate a bit. "Y-yes!" He seemed a bit hesitant. "Humans are demons who hunt Fish-Men for sport! Or even to do their bidding for them!"

Brook's jaw opened a bit "Ah…" 'I see. So was this what they had seen through experience, or what they had simply been told?' He thought to himself. "And on what grounds did you learn that?" He questioned in return.

The Fish-Man seemed, yet again, hesitant to reply. What was this _human carcass_ getting at?! He then straightened out a bit. "We had been taught this by our parents, and our people for generations." Brook was impressed he knew that last word for his age. "We learned that humans are selfish creatures with nothing but greed and bloodlust." Okay, _that_ last one caught Brook off guard.

Brook straightened himself out. "Really?" He asked. "I can't really speak for myself for possible bias, nor can I speak for all of humanity, as I not only don't know everyone who ever lived, but I know that there are in fact some people like that; greed with no boundary...I have heard claims that Fish-Men are mindless monsters hellbent on raw destruction from primal instinct." Brook frowned more and more as he spoke. "So I apologise that I cannot prove you correct, nor incorrect. BUT!" Brook rose a finger. "I _can_ say for certain that not all humanity is like this." The Fish-Man's reaction of shock/scepticism was all Brook needed to continue. "I know some of the finest men to exist, kindness reaching the horizons from dawn come dusk! I know men who want nothing more than to make people smile; women, children, and fellow men alike! I know men who would be disgusted at the acts you claim humans to do and would join you in your sympathy, hardship, and renaissance!" Brook then had a solemn look upon his face. "Me, though? I've never met a Fish-Man before today, so I have no right to claim anything about you without being a hypocrite, or even flat out wrong in my judgement. That is why I apologise." Brook finished by bowing forward once again.

The Fish-Man seemed to be in shock...almost awe. Had this human really said all of these things? Did he not hate him simply because he was a bipedal fish? But...it was as he said; even if he might not judge, there were still some that did.

But this human was not them. This human...didn't judge simply based on rumor or gossip. It seems they judged on actions. Perhaps he should do the same? Not even for humans, but _everyone_. He had been rather enclosed for most of his life from his brothers, after all. Though not wearing a smile, his scornful frown was no longer there.

"Jinbe."

Brook's head shot up from the voice. "Gesundheit." He apologised.

"I DIDN'T SNEEZE!" the Fish-Man yelled with shark teeth, clearly angry at the misconception. "My _name_ is Jinbe. Pleased to meet you." The now named Jinbe greeted, bowing much like Brook was.

"Yohohohoho!" Brook laughed as he also bowed in respect. "Oh no, the pleasure's all mine, Mr. Jinbe!" Brook seemed ecstatic now that most of the tension had died down. I mean, it's like an emotional headlock, no?

Jinbe didn't seem finished, though. "Now, like you promised before, where the hell are we?" He questioned.

Brook snapped out of his giddiness. "Ah, of course." He then started to walk towards the centre of the deck, coated in green for some reason. Wait, was this grass? OH MY GOD, WHY IS THIS SO COMFORTABLE UNDER THE FEET?! "You see, I should get this out of the way to start; worry not, you aren't dead."

Jinbe sighed in relief, not knowing it was caught up in there. "Then what is this place?" He asked.

Brook then sat down on the lawn. "Tell me Jinbe, what was your schedule for the last 24 hours?"

Jinbe was confused by this request, but tried remembering to the best of his ability. "I woke up, left the orphanage, and went to train in our signature fighting style, Fish-Man Karate with my sworn brothers." He then paused for a bit. "Brother Tiger went missing again, trying to go everywhere he hadn't yet. I swear, we're gonna have to start calling him the 'Adventurer' if this keeps up." He sighed. "Otherwise, I just trained for the day before...going to...sleep…"

Brook noticed Jinbe trailing off. "Did something happen that night?" He asked, though if his theory was correct, he already knew what happened.

"I woke up in the middle of the night, in the middle of...nothing...just...absolute darkness."

"Go on…"

"Well, I look around and see nothing but myself, my kimono I wear _right now_, and the sorry excuse I have of a bed." Jinbe almost looked stressed by now. Considering he also was at that stage, Brook wasn't all too surprised. "I start walking around, wandering if anyone else is there for 20 minutes straight, before collapsing on my ass with nothing but false hope for some kind of answer."

Brook held his hand out, stopping Jinbe from speaking any further. "By chance, did you meet an adult Fish-Man like yourself? More specifically, _you_?"

Jinbe was now downright terrified. The skeleton knew that this happened?! "How-?!"

"Because 45 years ago, on a seemingly normal night, the same thing happened to me when I was your age." Brook explained, chuckling to himself at the fond memory from decades yonder.

error404: Jinbe.exe has stopped working. I mean, wouldn't you be mentally shattered when you learned that a fucking skeleton had sailing on a ship in the middle of literally nowhere for almost half a century, let alone you being shoved into said void?

Brook stood up. "You see, Jinbe, you're still asleep." He spoke, snapping Jinbe out of crashing altogether. "This is a dream. I've been here every night for more than four decades, sailing on this beautiful ship I call home." He then shrugged. "And, odds are, you'll probably be here each night as well." He then laughed to himself a bit. Finally, someone else to talk to!

Jinbe stole the tongue back from the cat. "So, again, _where are we_?" For christ sake, he'd asked this three times now!

Brook was as ready to answer this question as a trigger finger at 1200 hours. "From what I've guessed, as well as you now being proof that this more than just a personal escape, this is a landscape of dreams, where we can do practically whatever we wish from whatever it provides, such as whatever the Sunny (this ship) has, or all the space it grants us. Personally, I gave it a name, cheesy as it might be; the **Dream Realm**."

Jinbe had given up on taking all this in. He just wanted to wake up tomorrow and hear Hachi talking about opening a restaurant again. It'd be much less complicated than a _fucking void in the middle of bumblefuck nowhere for people to be trapped in when they sleep through the darkest of nights_. He just accepted that this was now called the Dream Realm, he'd be here practically every night, the grass was SO COMFORTABLE OH MY GOD, and left it at that.

"Anything more I should add?"

Brook's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. When he processed what he said, though, he looked even paler than Kuroobi. "N-no thank you…" he stuttered, Too much information already. Any more and a migraine would be the least of his worries.

Brook seemed a little...disappointed. He had really wanted to share his findings. "Oh." Then again, he was just as conflicted at his age, so that was to be expected. He then remembered earlier before Jinbe arrived. "In that case, would you like some iced tea? I was just preparing some before you entered here." he offered, gesturing to the main room to the stern.

Jinbe shrugged. "Sure, why not?" He exhausted. "Not like I can do anything else right now."

Brook chuckled again. "Oh, don't be like that. Come an hour or when you wake, you'll be fine!" They then started walking to the kitchen, where Brook had still wondered what peach and mint tasted like.

"I better be."

* * *

_Jinbe was almost terrified of the current situation. _Almost._ But _dear God_, if this wasn't as close as possible._

_Even with his fight today giving him sizeable bruises and a bloody forehead, he shouldn't have _died_. He'd been through far worse with his brothers, thick and thin. And even when it did give him a concussion, he simply had a dream, or slept with nothing at all, the next day coming in what didn't even feel like three hours._

_So what gives?_

_By the time he was looking ahead instead of thinking _why_, he found himself starting at a lime green kimono. As he looked further up, noticing the vines and weird berries with seeds _outside_ decorating the traditional robe, he saw someone. More specifically, a blue Whale Shark Fish-Man, much like himself. He seemed to be in his 40s, though, if the grey sideburns and braided hairstyle were anything to go by. He might have to give it a shot when he's older. Who knows?_

_Wait. Why was he here again?_

"_I've been waiting for you, kid!" The taller whale shark proclaimed in a gruff voice, looking down at him._

_Jinbe was conflicted about the whole thing. _Why_ was he waiting? What for? And _WHY IN HIS ONLY TIME OF SOLITUDE?_ "...what for…?"_

_The taller Fish-Man simply responded by sitting down, shaking the entire void like an earthquake from the force of them dropping down like that. Hell, Jinbe almost lost his balance himself. He was more impressed he had managed to _not_ fall over from all that._

"_Come on, sit down!" He demanded._

_And that's exactly what Jinbe did, hesitation and confusion coating him all the way._

_Jinbe looked around him, nothing but black nothingness, this guy, and his pitiful bed behind him. This really was in the middle of nowhere. Or was it the edge? He couldn't tell, as it all looked the same! And _who the hell is this guy_?!_

_The Fish-Man then reached into his kimono before bringing out a bottle, "Sake?" He offered._

_Jinbe fell hesitant. "I-I really shouldn't…" He replied._

_The taller Fish-Man _smirked_ of all things, resting his head on his hand, elbow on his knee. "Kid, I know for a damn _fact_ you try and sneak some from the orphanage staff. I mean, they rob _that_ from the Sabaody Supply Delivery, but that's not the point."_

_Jinbe visibly froze, and hot damn if he wasn't about to collapse like a stalagmite. "H-how do y-you know about that?!" Jinbe cried. Nobody else had managed to sneak through to steal any sake (hell, he was famous in the orphanage for it!), nor had anybody questioned how he did it, so it just..._occured_ for the past two years. How did this guy, who came out of nowhere, figure it out?!_

"_Because I once did it as well. Hell of a rush, if I do say so myself!" The Fish-Man laughed._

_Jinbe was impressed; it seemed he wasn't the only one to do this. "Wait, rea-" An epiphany cut him off. He looked back up to the whale shark Fish-Man and noticed exactly that. Not only was he precisely that: a whale shark Fish-Man, but that, age aside, he looked _exactly like himself_. Everything. From the oni jaws that looked even more so than himself, the yellow eyebrows like an ancient dragons, the stern expression he wore...hell, even the hair looked exactly what he'd probably do._

_He stood up just as the bigger Fish-Man had poured two flat cups of sake, a smaller one for Jinbe. "W-w-wait!" He was aghast. "A-are you-"_

_His senior raised his hand for Jinbe to stop. 'If you know the answer to a question, and you're talking to someone else who knows, let alone is aware you know, why ask them?" He enquired, taking a sip of the sake. He then looked down at the dish. "Huh. Shanks was right. This is some good stuff." He muttered to himself._

_Jinbe was still in shock of this whole thing. Of all things to happen, meeting..._this_ wasn't even close to what he had expected. Hell, he hadn't expected to meet anybody here at all. That's what made it all the worse. But hey, as they say, hail mary, right?_

"_Uh...o-okay…" Jinbe then sat down, accepting that if he didn't just Fish-Man up and deal with it, he'd probably be questioning his sanity. But hey, that comes later._

_The greater oni looked towards Jinbe before jabbing a webbed finger in his direction. "Now then, your next line is 'Back to earlier; what the hell is this place, and why are you here?!', correct?" He bet._

_Jinbe put down the small dish. That stuff was actually pretty good. "Back to earlier; what the hell is this place, and why are you here?!" He demanded, pointing at the bigger Fish-Man. He then processed what had happened and gasped with a bunch of dramatic lines surrounding him "HUH?!"_

_The large one nodded sagely, smiling to himself. "As I thought." He then looked to the young grasshopper- no, whale shark - with a look so serious it almost looked like he'd be interviewed for a job. "Anyhow, this is nothing." He rose his arms up. "This, quite literally, is nothing. It shouldn't exist, but for a few minutes at a time almost never, it does for things like this. And as for where you are specifically, you went to sleep and woke up here, hence your sorry excuse of a bed behind you, you sweet summer child." He then stood up, a hand to his chest. "As for me? You already found out who I am, but why? To be brief, I'm here to guide you."_

_This left Jinbe with, rather than an answer to his question, _another fucking question_. "To _where_? My coffin?" He sneered._

_The larger Fish-Man sighed. "Oh, how I wish I _did _know necromancy right about now." He looked stupidly tired now. "Barely passing 47, and I already feel like I'm Newgate, Jesus Christ." He sighed again before clearing his throat, smiling again. "Anyway, to _where_? I'll be frank with you; an empty ocean."_

_Jinbe deadpanned. "Come again?" Holy hell, his voice was so 1.00 neutral that it was worthy of a Terminator remaster._

"_Let me rephrase that." His senior corrected. "_Almost_ empty. You'll be in a void like this one, but there'll be an infinite ocean that you can barely see, and a boat." He explained before crossing his arms, an authoritative tone taking over. "Your goal is to find this boat. I won't say what it looks like, as that will ruin the surprise, let alone the main purpose. Just find a boat, look for anybody aboard it, and act as you see fit."_

_Suddenly, something started to peer out of the corner of Jinbe's eye. As he looked over to it, all he saw was pure light, sticking out of the ground in a couple places on the floor. Suddenly, more and more started to show up, until both of the were fully visible with the tens to hundreds of tiny holes of light._

"_Well, times up."_

_Jinbe looked to the larger Fish-Man in confusion. Time was up?! "For _what?!_" He demanded._

_The latter looked to Jinbe dead in the eye. "It's time." He replied, to the benefit of absolutely nothing. More light had started to appear, coming out of the bigger Fish-Man now. "Now then, you're going to fall when this finishes. Like, from the sky. You'll fall into the ocean, and likely see a boat nearby. As I said, get to that boat, and everything you need to know will be explained." For some reason, he decided to _bow_ to Jinbe. Really?! At a time like this?!_

_Light was starting to come out of the lad now as well, though that wasn't where his attention was. Rather, "Thanks, I guess," He followed the bow in respect, light starting to blind everything, his bed already swallowed. He then looked up, a cheeky grin on his face. "_Jinbe_."_

_A hardy laughter bellowed from the older Jinbe as everything became a crystal white, his laughter continuing to echo through._


	4. What is a Man?

DATE: MAY 30th, 2019 (30/5/19)

* * *

"Brother Ti?" Jinbe asked, approaching the tall Fish-Man.

Tiger looked down to the young whale shark. "Hm?"

Jinbe looked hesitant now that he'd asked. He didn't think he'd get this far, honestly. "What's your opinion on...on...humans?"

It was the day after Jinbe had met Brook and been shown around the Sunny and ITS SOFT GRASSES HOLY SHIT. During the time, he learned how Brook's crew from decades yonder, the Rumbar Pirates (yes, he was once a pirate, wouldn't you know) had set out for two things in mind; adventure, and music, to, as they would say 'Bring a smile to every child!'. This, of course, had sounded absolutely_ nothing_ like the humans, nor pirates he had heard rumors about.

Even in the Fish-Man District, there weren't really that many pirates, rather small gangs formed by some of the young adults and other miscellaneous thugs that came through from time to time, be it those local, or even from Fish-Man Island itself.

Tiger seemed put off by this question. His eyes narrowed slightly, but otherwise remained still. "What do you mean by that, Jinbe?" He inquired.

"Well...I was thinking…" Jinbe started, being a little nervous. "I had a thought about something, but I want to hear what you have to say."

Tiger put a hand to his chin, seemingly thinking. It took a good twenty seconds before he had an answer for Jinbe. "As far as I'm concerned, humans care about nothing but themselves, even to the bitter death." He then looked ahead from where they were sitting. "And until I'm proven otherwise by even a single human, that's likely to be my view unto my deathbed."

Jinbe was a little conflicted by this. Although it turns out Brook was a human before death, he didn't seem that bad. He even offered him some tea, a cot in the quarters in the ship, even some tales of when he sailed, where he drew his crew were in the same vein as Brook.

Jinbe didn't want to tell this to the sea bream Fish-Man right out the gate, or it'd be too abrupt. So he started simple. "Okay. So," Jinbe paused a bit. "What if...not _all_ humans are evil?" He asked.

Tiger turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "While there are fair odds that not all of humanity is cruel, and I can only hope that is true, what _I've_ seen only backs up my claim, much to my dismay."

Jinbe turned to Tiger in shock. "W-wait, _seen_?"

Tiger looked confused for a moment before it got to his head. "Ah, right. I haven't brought it up yet." He muttered to himself, facepalming. He then lowered himself to Jinbe's level. "Listen, what I'm about to tell you, speak it to nobody. I'll do it myself when I feel it's right." Tiger's face was stern, demanding, almost afraid. So many emotions that it was hard to keep track with those words.

Jinbe nodded slowly, kind of scared about what caused the 25 year old to become so serious.

"Very well." Tiger nodded, before standing up. "Not just the Fish-Man District, but I have left Fish-Man Island itself many times before." Jinbe's look of shock had spoken his mind; Fisher Tiger had left the whole country before? But wait...he didn't mean-

"I have reached the surface, the long sea known as the Grand Line. I've seen humanity." Nope, nevermind. It's exactly that. "When I tried to approach them and greet them, some ran away in fear, some in _disgust_. Many tried to scare me into fleeing, some tried fighting me into submission." Tiger then let out a tired sigh. "They called me every name under the damned sun, be it 'Fish-Freak', 'monster', 'beast', 'demon'...it never stopped, no matter how hard I tried to _calmly_ reason." He lowly growled at the end. "Humans think us as beasts lower than them, be it from higher population, greater manpower, overall grip of history of old, I don't even care anymore…" He turned to look at Jinbe. "Not once did I see a single human who was decent enough to so much as reply, as much as you or even I would have hoped. All they did is _hate_ without hesitation, and likely try to save their own hide at the first sign of trouble."

Jinbe had eyes as wide as his jaw, and pupils as shrunken as his hands. Had these humans really done this? Just despide Tiger for merely _existing_? What kind of egos did these humans _have_?

But..wait. What of Brook?

"W-w-well, T-Tiger…" He could barely speak, still reeling from shock. "S-something happened to me last night…"

Tiger immediately was on edge. "_What_ happened?!" He sneered.

Jinbe quickly waved his hands in front of him. "N-no no, nothing like _that_!" He wasn't shanked in the back of his neck or anything like that. To Tiger's credit, though, he definitely could have worded that better. "You see, when I slept, I...something happened in my sleep…"

"_Like_?" Tiger motioned, giving him a 'go on' look.

"I…" Jinbe's muscles tensed, preparing for Tiger's _very likely_ outburst. "I met a carcass." A slight pause. " A _human_ carcass."

Strangely enough, as rude as it sounded, Tiger _didn't_ go on a rampage, demanding Jinbe what they had done with him, or where were they, he'd beat them up within an inch of their life. Credit where it was due, he was holding up much better than Jinbe expected.

All he _did_ do was narrowed his eyes, almost glaring at Jinbe. "And what happened during this 'meeting'?"

Jinbe figured he'd get straight to the point. Fuck taking it easy. "I talked with my future self in a pitch-black void, had some sake from one of the four seas on the surface (I believe he said from the West Blue?), fell into _another_ pitch-black void with an almost invisible ocean, found a giant ship with a lion's head afront it, got called out to by a tall skeleton, wanting to know who I was, let alone how I got there, swam over and climbed onto the ship, learned his name, how he died, how he'd never heard of a Fish-Man in his life, that he'd been dead for fifteen years, been on that ship for forty five years, how he'd named that place the Dream Realm, tried some tea with some ingredients called 'peach' and 'mint', and OH MY GOD HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF GRASS, HOLY HELL, IT'S THE MOST COMFORTABLE THING EVER!"

Now Tiger was the one reeling back, partly from all the information at once, partly from how calm this human _sounded_, and partly from the sudden outburst about this 'grass'. He'd have to ask what that was.

No. Focus.

"Jinbe." Tiger spoke slowly. "Are you _certain_ you didn't harm yourself too badly yesterday? Or that what you had was some sort of fever dream?"

Jinbe straightened up a bit after having his little..._episode_, we'll call it, about fucking _grass_. Honestly? He almost looked offended, but answered his senior as straightforward as possible. "100%."

Tiger nodded, accepting that this is what he'd have to work with "Very well. Then what was this human like?" He tried. Dammit, he sounded like a father teaching their young about how everything worked and why.

Jinbe cleared his throat, so no flem could interfere his explanation. "Alright, his name was Brook, and he was once a pirate fifteen years ago." Ignoring Tiger tensing, or just not noticing it, he moved on. "He said they were called the Rumbar Pirates, mostly playing music and fighting when attacked. He also said, before he died, he met an Island Whale named Laboon. A baby, actually." This surprised Tiger a bit. Island Whales were commonly found in the exit of Fish-Man island, entering something called the 'New World'. What was a _baby_ doing in one of those seas?

"Hold on." He suddenly said. "You said he'd never met a Fish-Man before, yes?" Jinbe nodded. "Then what did he say about you, or Fish-Men in general?"

Jinbe started thinking, trying to remember what Brook had said.

_"I have heard claims that Fish-Men are mindless monsters hellbent on raw destruction from primal instinct."_

"_Me, though? I've never met a Fish-Man before today, so I have no right to claim anything about you without being a hypocrite, or even flat out wrong in my judgement."_

"He'd said that he heard that Fish-Men were monsters, wanting to destroy everything...But…" Tiger had to hold in a low growl from that first bit. "He didn't want to assume anything from what he heard. He said he wanted to judge from what he saw, not what he heard." Tiger raised an eyebrow at this. This human judged not on gossip, but character? That was new. Almost too good to be true. "He was worried of being wrong in his judgement, so he didn't choose to believe anything." Jinbe smiled a bit. "He was actually really pleasant to talk to."

Even Tiger was smiling to himself. Delusion or real, Jinbe had met a half-decent human. Huh. Turns out they _are_ once in a blue moon, let alone _exist_.

He then went back to his straight face. He needed to tell this. "Jinbe." Said kid looked up to Tiger. "I'll be honest; I don't fully trust this yet. But…" And he was smiling again. "For your sake, I'm willing to give benefit of the doubt. Hopefully it works out well."

Jinbe was ecstatic. Tiger had heard him out! And he was open to _listen_! As he said, Jinbe would have to learn more about Brook, but hell! Progress is progress!

"Thank you for hearing me out, Brother Ti!" Jinbe exclaimed, bowing deeply in thanks.

The former simply smiled, sighing. "Of course, Jinbe."

* * *

By the time he'd fallen asleep to arrive aboard the Sunny later that night, in the cot that Brook had shown him prior, he had greeted Brook, whom had been making a cup of coffee (how did a hollow skeleton _drink_?), only to run past him to check outside. Yep, as voidish as ever. More importantly, however, _**GRASS**_.

It took Brook fifteen minutes to pull a whining Jinbe away from what was essentially his personal ecstasy. "But it's _so comfy_." Is what he'd say, but it just really be like that sometimes.

After what was possibly the mildest tantrum in the past millennia (not that anybody would know), Jinbe had gone to the library to see what there was to read. There wasn't much, but hey, he'd take what he could get. Strangely enough, though, they were cut down to only a few subjects; along with the odd novel such as Reign of Glory, Harbinger, and The Rainbow Mist, there was books on various kinds of swordsmanship, a bakery guide with a bookmark two fifths of the way in, a book on helmsmanship, and a couple history books on Fish-Man Island.

Jinbe had caught on to the pattern that, along with miscellaneous other books added by choice, these were generally associated with Brook or Jinbe. Except the helmsman book; Jinbe had no idea why that was there.

"Ah, so you came to look for a book, too." Jinbe jumped slightly, but calmed down after seeing that Brook was behind him. "Oh, how I love a good read every now and then. Tales of old warm a heart long since gone, bringing a smile to my face! Not that I can say I really have either. YOHOHOHOHO!" Brook exclaimed. And Skull Joke aside, Jinbe had to agree. If nothing else to do, losing yourself in a book was a good idea. I mean, knowledge, right? "Now then, if you need me, I'm going to grab my copy of Mantra and see where the white river leads." As Brook grabbed a book with gold engraving and white clouds on the cover before taking a seat, long black beside him on the bench.

Jinbe simply nodded. "Very well." He then left the library, heading back onto the deck. The first thing that went into Jinbe's mind was the SHEER COMFORT OF THE GRASS BENEATH THE FEET OH HELL YES. After that, though, something that Brook had said last night popped into his head.

* * *

"_What exactly do you do here, anyway?" Jinbe had asked the corpse from the table, curious as to what even goes on here._

_A thoughtful look on his skull, Brook put a hand to his chin. "Well, I check the Sunny once every month to make sure she's in good condition. Additionally, I find a few new books in the library every now and then with old ones going, nowhere to be found," The _spooky_ tone at the end was ridiculously cheesy, to the point where Jinbe deadpanned a massive frown in disappointment. "Elsewhere, I often make myself a long black coffee I learnt from my own journey in the Grand Line, sometimes tea instead, and I either read one of the new books, relax on an odd day, or train my swordsmanship on the lawn._

_Jinbe's attention was at the ready when he heard that last part. "Training?" He asked, confused. "I thought this was the _Dream_ Realm. Wouldn't training in your _sleep_ be a bit, well, redundant__?"_

"_Yohohohoho," Brook chuckled, stirring the two cups of tea on the bench with a teaspoon. "I used to think that as well, merely hoping that it would simply help me remember the correct posture for certain battle situations," He then proceeded to throw his hands sky high. "But _NOPE_, it actually helps you become stronger when you're awake, too! Training every night here since I was eighteen has really helped me in protecting my hometown and old kingdom, as well as make a name for myself as a Rumbar Pirate!"_

_Jinbe nodded hopefully. He didn't have time now, since all the explaining with Brook had taken up all of his time here, but he'd have to try that soon. He had learned when he finally falls asleep here, he'd wake up back in 'the real world' after a couple minutes. From how he yawned every now and again, that was about an hour away from now._

_Jinbe was curious now. "Do you still train? I thought you died years ago."_

_Brook nodded. "I did. I may not train as frequently as I did back in the day, but I still make sure to every two-three days, give or take. Don't want this sack of bones to go brittle, huh?" He answered, laughing to himself again like the jolly bastard he was._

* * *

Now that he had hours left before waking back up on Fish-Man Island, he could take up that idea. He could outclass every other student there. Hell, even in general, more training = stronger overall!

He immediately planted his feet in the grass straightforward, stiff as a board, before holding his tiny hands to his side, curled up into fists. After taking a couple deep breaths, he started doing standard punching motions ahead of him, making sure to not move his waist when punching the air in front of him, as well as keep his feet planted at all times.

An hour later, Brook had come by to check up on the Fish-Man, only to find the latter slowly moving his hands and body in yoga-esque poses, as if he was flowing water around him within his own control. He looked so calm, yet focused on his movements.

'Is this part of Fish-Man Karate?' Brook thought to himself.

* * *

"_Alright then, do you do anything during your spare time?" Brook asked the young whale shark, finishing the second cup of tea on the bench in front of him. Jinbe was just as curious as what peach and mint were like together. Hell, he'd never heard of either before, so three new things at once, huh? "Do you take part in a sport, do you hang out with friends, or maybe something more personal?"_

_Jinbe seemed to get the question. "I train in Fish-Man Karate." He replied, nice and simple._

_Brook hummed to himself as he brought the two cups to the table, with Brook sitting at the back seat furthest from the door while Jinbe sat adjacent to his left. "You know," Brook wondered. "You never did tell me what exactly that _is_."_

_Jinbe grunted in acknowledgement. "My teacher taught me that Fish-Man Karate is a style of fighting that focuses on the movement of water. It is best used in an ocean or lake, as there is an abundance of it, but can also be used on dry land."_

_Brook nodded himself, taking all of this in. "You said it's a water-based fighting style, yes? How can one use such a style on land, a place with little if no water?" He asked, curious._

"_Water vapour," Was the response Brook got, who tilted his skull in confusion. "The near invisible droplets of water in the air. Fish-Man Karate is said to be able to manipulate the droplets into making shockwaves." Jinbe then shrugged. "Believe me, I have no idea how either." he then tried to get back on track. "Anyway, there are more things to Fish-Man Karate then just that, though our class is yet to learn them, like being able to throw a single drop of water with the force of a bullet."_

_Brook laughed to himself. "Yohohoho, I didn't think that a fighting style could be so unique, and so complex."_

_Jinbe chuckled himself. "Me neither." He then took a small sip of the tea Brook had prepared him. Apparently, while he said it was normally hot or warm, Brook had made this tea cool, an 'iced tea' he said, due to the flavours. It was fresh in the throat, but it had a sweet aftertaste. "This is really nice!" He cheered._

"_Yohohoho! I'll have to make sure we have more of those teabags then!"_

* * *

Brook smiled at the memory from yesterday.

"Perhaps I should start training full time again." He muttered to himself, leaving Jinbe to train and put Mantra back in the Library.


	5. Iron Man

DATE: JUNE 25th, 2019 (25/6/19)

* * *

The dust started to settle, water stopped rippling, the ground no longer shook.

As the onlookers peered ahead, Jinbe was heaving heavily in breath, yet still standing proud. Powerful attack it was, he wasn't going down so easily. Apparently, considering he was also still standing strong with no intention of crumbling, neither was Fisher Tiger. He didn't look nearly as bad as Jinbe did, but he was still bleeding here and there with countless bruises. This shocked some of the residents of the Fish-Man District, as despite how minor it looked compared to injuries others in the Fish-Man District had received, this was the worst that they had seen Tiger, let alone the closest someone had come to defeating him in straight combat (despite the difference in damage taken between the two). After all, he pretty much _owned the place_.

But injury come due, Jinbe gave out a final groan of exhaustion before falling forward onto the cold sea floor. Not unconscious, but enough to know that he is_ done_ fighting Tiger for today.

"...Dammit…" Jinbe muttered, head flat on the ground. He was so close to beating Tiger...okay, maybe not. But he injured him enough to be substantial, right?!

Tiger chuckled to himself. "Considering how brutally you were fighting, I'm impressed by your calmness and composure." He then walked up to Jinbe, who was looking up at him with a slightly grouchy look. Did he understand? Who knows? He wasn't Jinbe. Regardless, he held a hand out to the Whale Shark Fish-Man. "Sorry to say, brother, but I'm still stronger than you."

Jinbe pouted. _Pouted_. "Or maybe because you know how I fight from watching and battling me countless times." Yeah, he was a _bit_ salty after the loss. But hey, after 2 years of 'sparring' on the regular, seemingly no difference in the outcome (though everyone else argued elsewise), you tend to get a bit sour.

But through each loss, he had grown stronger, learned from his mistakes, _became greater_. He had to be honest, though. If not for the Dream Realm providing him with nearly Double Time for training, he wouldn't even be able to make Tiger break a bead of sweat, let alone cause him injuries in battle. But as he learned from today and every other, he still had a long way to go before besting the **Adventurer**.

Although, he hadn't even noticed he himself had a following almost as large as Tiger from his strength. Maybe he didn't care?

After the little comment he made, Jinbe grabbed Tiger's hand to pull himself up from his gut, a little grunt from Jinbe's end. He dusted off his clothes, which was a white karate kimono with a black belt, along with another navy blue outer shirt with large sleeves, the ends a light blue with swirls. Ironically enough, the swirls were the exact same as his sideburns. Jinbe himself had also grown since nine years ago when he found the Sunny. His hair was now a _dark_ grey, almost jet black, reaching all the way down the back of his neck, along with his eyebrows and aforementioned sideburns becoming a more pronounced blonde.

"MAAADADADADADADADADA!" Tiger gave out a hearty laugh. "I guess that could also be it!" He grinned. His face then turned back to neutral, but with a smile on it for once in his life. "Honestly, though? Give it a few years and you'll surpass me without a break of a sweat. I have good faith you'll be the strongest Fish-Man we have, Jinbe." Most of the surrounding Fish-Men nodded in agreement. Whether they liked him or not, he was incredibly fit for the title.

To be quite real, Jinbe deserved it at this point. He talked with Tiger about what had happened on the Sunny quite often (young Hatchan had overheard a couple times 'in secret', though Jinbe knew he was there), others laughed at him thinking he was delusional for believing a 'decent human' existed. While back in the day he beat the shit out of them, regardless of age or strength, he'd grown out of that by now and either ignore them or simply smirked to himself.

Jinbe smirked right now, actually. "From you aging, I assume?" He challenged. Some of the weaker Fish-Men started breaking out in a cold sweat, fearing Tiger might outlash as such snark.

All Fisher Tiger _did_ do was laugh. He didn't even bother hiding a snicker, he just flat out _howled_.

"**MAAADADADADADADADADADADADADA!"**

* * *

"So what was it you wanted to talk about, Jinbe?" Brook asked, placing the Gomoku board down.

"I...feel like I'm having a midlife crisis before my 20s…" Jinbe replied, webbed hand holding his head above the table.

This evening, Jinbe was wearing an orange kimono lined with navy blue sleeve ends and belt, reading "FISHY" On the front. Brook, meanwhile, was wearing a purple dress shirt and dark grey blazer, along with maroon jeans and jet black formal shoes with leather topping. A lavender fedora with a poppy sat beside him on the table.

Somehow, it was raining in the Dream Realm today. It didn't happen often, either; twice between Brook and Jinbe arriving, and twice in between that. Tonight was the 5th day it had happened, and since Jinbe was a little down for some reason, Brook figured he'd set up one of the games he had found a while ago. Considering he played it alot with Yorki (Which was 34 years ago, might he add), he didn't know if the newer generations knew of it. He didn't count Jinbe because of how the average citizen of Fish-Man Island barely knew anything or anywhere outside of it. Back then, Jinbe got the grasp of a couple games pretty quickly; Ludo, Koi-Koi (a twist his crew made for Hanafuda), and Gomoku were the ones he enjoyed best. Didn't really seem fond of most card games, though there were a couple exceptions like I Doubt It, or as everyone he'd ever met above the age of 11 called it, Bullshit. I mean, who doesn't like calling out a liar?

Brook sighed a bit as he sorted out the pieces, handing the white ones to Jinbe. "Very well then, walk me through it. What happened today?" He asked. "Does it involve besting Tiger again?"

Now it was Jinbe's turn to sigh. "You know me well." It made sense, considering Brook was like an uncle to him at this point. "I just...I feel like, no matter how hard I train here or back there, I don't think I'm improving at all. I know I've improved at least slightly, but…" Jinbe trailed off a bit before shaking his head, trying to get back on track. "I...I feel as if it's all pointless for some reason…"

More often than not, Brook knew how to answer Jinbe's questions. He was insightful like that. He knew the lad since a tyke after all. And fortunately for Jinbe, this was one of those times.

"Jinbe," Brook started. "Have you ever considered that Tiger is simply that incredibly strong?"

Jinbe had to do a double take as he lifted his head of his hand. "Of course! Why-"

"Then what if you're also just that strong, but rather than compare to others of a similar feat, you're just too fixated on besting one Fish-Man? Have you considered how strong you actually are instead of believing you're only weak because you cannot defeat a single person, who goes through as much as you and beyond?"

His eyes widened. Brook had a point; he barely even noticed there were crowds when he and Tiger had a spar. He didn't even know until Arlong walked up to him and pointed towards everybody. And even then, he shut that from his mind. Holy shit, Brook was right again! He'd been only focused on defeating a single person to prove his strength. And even then…

He looked up to Brook with a small smile. "Thanks, Brook. I needed that."

"Yohohohoho," Brook chuckled. "Too right you did." He then placed a black piece 5x5 from the top left corner; his signature Gomoku opening.

* * *

"Huh. So you finally managed to reach 44°." Jinbe asked, placing a white piece to block Brook's four for the fifth time. He wasn't _that_ blind, you know!

"Indeed!" Brook exclaimed, placing a black piece to cancel Jinbe's slowly forming three-and-three. He had always been proud of small things like this, especially since he had to survive out there doing nothing the whole day but quite literally 'rolling in his grave'. He'd be saving that one for when he found someone (or vice-versa), his magnum opus of Skull Jokes if you will. "I finally managed to loosen my ankle joint enough to reach it!" Brook let out some air from god knows where out his mouth in a small sigh. "Now I just need to finish the other 4°."

"..." Jinbe deadpanned at his figurative uncle. "You'd think you'd learn by now to go bit by bit to finish something rather than the whole trip at once."

"Bite me." Brook replied. Why could _he_ be proud of something for once? Oh wait, he often was. Time and time again, here _and_ the Florian Triangle . Was he being petty again? Yeah, he was being petty again.

A white piece to form a new three near the bottom.

A black piece at the top right to form a four-and-four that Jinbe _somehow_ hadn't noticed yet.

A white piece below the one prior, forming yet another three-and-three.

"You're being petty again."

"I am indeed being petty again."

**SPLASH!**

A familiar sound stopped the game, shocking the two. Both even let out a small gasp. They looked to the door outside, then each other, before rushing outside the door onto the deck.

Brook grabbed his miniature telescope and looked forward. It certainly wasn't aft, as they both heard it outside the front door; the _only_ door. Beside him, Jinbe started looking off the starboard bow using sheer eye power. And considering he was well accustomed to water, he was confident he'd be able to find whatever fell in this time.

Immediately, where Jinbe was looking, he was proven right as a new person had entered the Dream Realm, popping out from the surface of the water.

"Brook! Over here!" Jinbe waved over. Brook immediately folded his telescope back in and rushed over to Jinbe's position.

As he looked through the telescope, with Jinbe's hand over the latter's forehead (despite no sun but with the light thereof), the new guy came into view. Much like them when they appeared, they were a child. A guy by the structure of his face, let alone his hair; it was light blue, even lighter/paler than Jinbe's skin, vertically spiked, and pointing mostly to the right at a slight angle. The kid also seemed to be wearing some sort of round goggles, brown with nearly black lenses. Could you even see out of those things? He was also wearing an open tropical shirt like a vest, a dark teal colour with purple diagonal lines rushing southwest.

The two hadn't realised it, but the rain had stopped.

* * *

As Cutty Flam washed the water out of his eyes, trying to see, he started to look back on whatever the fuck that was. 'Oh my god,' he thought to himself. 'I'm actually gonna be a Cyborg. That's cool as hell! And when he said a ship,-' as he finished washing the water blocking his vision, he looked around him, absolutely nothing, even the water below him was clear. Hell, he could see most of himself underwater (with some of his legs and feet being a bit blurry). It was almost like a black dome of water. Holy shit, was he in an oversized fishbowl?

When he turned to his left, though, he saw one of the sexiest ships he had ever seen. And believe me, Tom had shown him a hell of a lot of ships. A giant brig sloop with a beautiful paint job, strong masts, a lion figurehead (why did it look like a sun? Was it the sun?), and...was that another Fish-Man like Tom? And is that a _Skeleton?!_

Franky let off a massive grin.

* * *

"HEY!" The two were caught off guard by the kid's yell. "NICE SHIP!" Wait. Why wasn't he scared of a skeleton in a void? And had he seen a Fish-Man before? This...this was odd. Or was he just _that_ optimistic.

"Thanks, I guess?!" Jinbe yelled back, confused. This kid had strange priorities.

"Oh yeah! Where are we?!" Was the next question. A bit later than expected, but still anticipated nonetheless. For better or worse.

After clearing his throat and head, Brook turned full attention to the pile of blue spikes. "Get on board!" He replied. "We'll explain everything!" With that, he and Jinbe rushed back to centre deck, Jinbe rushing to pull down the ladder.

The kid seemed to be satisfied, as he bore a...smirk? and started swimming towards where Jinbe had been moving to set down his way up.

By the time he got to the already dropped ladder, Jinbe could've sworn the kid had stars in his eyes. "HOLY HELL, THIS THING'S MASSIVE!" he cheered.

Jinbe rolled his eyes. "No shit!" He retorted to Captain Obvious before jeering his thumb behind him. "Now hurry it up!"

"Got it!"

With that settled, Jinbe went to the lawn WHICH WAS STILL SO COMFORTABLE FOR NINE YEARS NOW SWEET GHANDI'S TITS and sat down, waiting for the newcomer with Brook.

He turned his head to Brook. "You sure this is a good idea?" He asked.

Brook deadpanned, a rare sight from him. "Jinbe. The same thing happened with you, as did it with me. And as far as I can tell, the one difference between all three so far is that I was the only one here when I arrived." 'Except for that girl's voice…' Brook kept that last thought to himself. He'd given up on that search long ago, finding no worth in a wild goose chase here of all places.

Jinbe accepted this answer, nodding. "Fair enough."

During this talk, the new kid had finally climbed up to the top, hoisting himself over the railing.

"Thanks!" Was the reply, the kid still smiling brightly. The two had turned their attention to him and...the hell…?

"Uh, kid?" Jinbe asked, trying so sound as minimally awkward as possible.

"...Yeah?" said child asked, raised eyebrow afoot.

"Where...where are your pants?"

"What pants?"

Both Brook and Jinbe inwardly sighed at this. 'Oh no.' This kid was going to be wearing nothing but bloody speedos, wasn't he? The red actually fit the shirt well, but that's not the point.

"And _why_ aren't you wearing pants, young man?" Brook tried, curious.

The kid almost looked _offended_ of all things after that comment. "Why should I?" He countered. "Legs constrain my movements jam my groove. My legs deserve to be free, dammit!" That last word was something (what looked like) en eight year old shouldn't know.

After his little proclamation, he then struck this...let's call it 'unique' pose. Arms high and proud, wrists back-to-back, right leg bent, left leg strut, leaning to his right, head held high without a care in the world.

Jinbe turned to Brook. "The fuck?"

Brook was just as conflicted. "I have no idea…"

The kid, meanwhile, was stuck in his own little world, loud and proud like he proclaimed the Declaration of Independence with a twist of Soul. This kid had balls of steel, and one didn't even need to look at the speedos to see that.

Said kid looked back down. "Hm?" He seemed confused. Did he forget something? "Oh, sorry. Off track," He laughed to himself. "Anyway, name's Franky. It's what I live by, and goddamn it'll be what I die by." The now named Franky smirked, before turning into a straight face, slightly frowning. "But yeah, where the hell is this?"

Brook cleared his throat. "I believe we can answer that." He replied. "Now then, this is your dream, put simply. To be specific, everyone who resides here is dreaming, appearing here in their sleep."

Franky nodded slowly, a small smile on his face. "I don't have a clue how that happens, but that sounds awesome!"

Jinbe smiled to himself. If this kid was this upbeat, he'd do just fine. "Don't worry, Franky, we'll explain anything we can before morning." He assured.

Franky smiled in return. "Thanks." He replied in gratitude. "Also, can we just take a moment of our time to appreciate HOW AWESOME THIS SHIP IS?!" Yep, he definitely had stars in his eyes. It was almost blinding to look at.

"Yohohohoho," Brook chuckled to himself. "Yes, yes, it is indeed incredible. It's been housing me here for 53 years now. Hard to believe, honestly."

Considering he'd been here for 9 years now, Jinbe may not have the level of experience of Brook, but this was still his home all the same. None finer. "Come then," He requested, standing up. "Let's get you something to drink before showing you around, yes?" As Brook nodded in agreement, the two walked towards the inside of the ship. Behind them, Franky had a wicked smile. He was going to like it here.

When Franky got upstairs, the door already open, he saw Brook prepare a cup of what seemed to be coffee. Looked pitch-black, though. It seemed he was a bit loud, as the skeleton had turned towards him.

"Ah, Franky. Would you be interested in a Long Black?" Brook offered.

The former hadn't a damn what exactly that was, but it seemed he was referencing the weird coffee he was making. "Nah, not a coffee person." Besides, he was a bit young compared to most people starting with coffee.

Brook nodded. "Very well," He then turned to the fridge. "Let's see what else we have." He then opened the door to look at what was there. "Let's see; fresh water, milk, orange juice, cactus juice, sake, oh, I forgot I had some leftover genmaicha...hm?" Brook paused for a bit, seeing a strange maroon bottle with a thin neck, a dark brown liquid inside. "What could this be?" He asked, pulling the bottle out and inspecting it.

The moment Franky saw it, his excitement skyrocketed, instantly grabbing the bottle from Brook's bony grasp. "Is that cola?!" He exclaimed, hyped to the teeth.

The other two were confused; the hell was that? "Cola?" they asked simultaneously.

Franky looked shocked at the question. "You two've never heard of cola?" Franky asked, eyebrow raised.

"I'm 62 years old, having been dead for 24. I know of no other drink past my death besides what I hear from Jinbe." Brook's answer.

"I'm essentially from the slums of Fish-Man-kind; have been since I was born." Jinbe's answer.

Franky nodded, understanding these answers. "I haven't had it either, but I've seen it before, and heard it's really sweet! Tom wouldn't let me have any, though; said I'd go crazy."

Brook slowly grabbed the bottle back from Franky. "Well maybe this 'Tom' had a point. Maybe another day, but we still need to show you around, don't we?"

As saddened as Franky got from the lustrous taste of cola escaping him once more, he got the message. "Fair enough," He nodded. "And yeah, I want to see the _whole_ ship! It's gotta be the most beautiful ship ever!"

"Yohohohoho! I most certainly won't deny that!" Brook laughed in agreement. "Now then, let's begin the tour right away."

"Yeah!" Franky cheered.

"Also, Jinbe?" Brook quickly turned to the Fish-Man.

"Hm?"

"Five in a row." A black piece to finish the game.

"**DAMMIT!**"

* * *

_*Snore*_

_Franky had often been a heavy sleeper. He may not sleep much, but when he did, _dear god_, would he sleep. Even back in the days of Cutty Flam, he'd been a stone in his slumber._

_*Snore*_

_And tonight was no different. Despite the fact that he was in a pitch-black void and had slept on the wooden floor tonight, he was still in possibly the deepest sleep known to mankind._

"_Zombies...wolves...zombies riding wolves…" *Snore*_

_Even with the giant cyborg before him trying to wake him up, he didn't budge in the slightest. Impressive, to be honest._

_At this point, the guy decided to start shaking the kid. "Come on, kiddo. Wake up." Nothing. He'd been at this for the past five minutes, yet even within a dream, Franky was a solid sleeper. "Wake up, kid!" the cyborg yelled._

_Franky started flailing his arms, sounding cranky. "Alright, I'm up, I'm up." He sighed. After a yawn and a rub of his eyes with his left arm, he looked around to see...nothing. Absolutely nothing. "What." Had the world turned off or something?_

"_Jesus christ, kid, that took me _far_ longer than it should've." A voice from behind Franky spoke. It was probably the whitest 30s voice he'd ever heard, and holy hell did the guy sound high up. "Why do you have to be such a heavy sleeper?" it groaned._

_Franky seemed perplexed by this attitude the voice gave off. "I don't know; I just am!" He retorted. "How the hell am I supposed to know I'm good at sleeping?!"_

"_You tell me, kid." How subtly avoidant. "I've been trying to wake you up for the past five minutes, and considering what I gotta do, that's a shitton of time wasted!"_

_By this point, Franky was annoyed and confused; apparently, he was so good at sleeping that he could sleep within his sleep and not be woken up either way, there was a guy behind him complaining for wasting their time in _HIS SLEEP_, and now he just wanted to punch them in the face, futile as it was. Never had been a morning person._

_So when he spun around to see them, he wasn't met with just a guy in his 30s, oh no. He was met with a bloody _titan_, almost 8 foot. No wonder the voice was so high up. As he stood back, the titan of a man had a massive chest with a white singlet with the letters 'GIGA' written on it in black, capital letters, along with a black leather vest to the sides. His hair was a sky blue, messy but still moved into a direction (think Ken Masters). His arms were bloody enormous, with round, literally spherical, shoulders that covered most of his biceps and the upper half of his arms, with 'BF-37' written on both of them, and the bottom half covered in a light blue metal with dark blue stars afront them. His legs were hairy, but there was metal along the middle to his thighs all the way down to his feet, which had beige sandals on, actually._

_This thing in front of him? It was a cyborg. A mother. Fucking. _CYBORG.

_Franky's eyes went high beam in sheer awe of the beast before him. "HOLY SHIT!" He roared, smile wider than what should be legal. "ARE YOU A ROBOT OH MY GOD YOU'RE A ROBOT HOLY CRAP THIS IS THE BEST MOMENT OF MY LIFE!" He didn't even care if he was wearing what he was bleeding sweating and crying into earlier today; Franky was in sheer _ecstasy.

_The cyborg before him smirked, sunglasses afront him raised to his forehead and a cocked eyebrow. "Damn straight, champ!" He confirmed, putting a thumbs up from his giant red hand, causing Franky to froth at the mouth from his little fit of joy. "I, young man, am _the_ most advanced cyborg the world has ever seen!, Self developed, too. I've got everything a guy could need!" He then went through a crash course of everything he had from the list to showing them off himself, including, but not limited to: "Superhuman strength, nipple lights, shoulder rockets, mini hands from my bigger hands, a _radical_ beam attack, customisable pop-out hair, _THE WHOLE JOINT!_" Franky was almost unconscious at this point, only not being so to hear what else this guy had in his arsenal. "And you want to know what I _really_ am, kid?" Franky immediately nodded damn-near ferally. "Well lemme tell ya, then. I. Am." He then struck a post, his blue wrists back to back, combining the stars into one as he leaned to the side, showing his awesomeness in a single move._

"**SUPER!**"

"_YEAH!" Franky cheered at the whole thing before him, pulling a similar pose. Honestly, he could barely tell the entire place was pitch-black. He could've sworn there was a golden light behind this dude with heavenly angels chorusing in the background. From a reader perspective, Ode to Joy wouldn't be far off from this exact scene that Franky wouldn't forget for the rest of his life._

_Soon, the light and choir dilated, the cyborg standing back up straight. He jabbed a thumb at himself. "Yep, that's me!" He smirked. He then noticed Franky wasn't moving, and his eyes were yellow instead of black. Was that froth at the side of his mouth? Was the kid even conscious?! Shit, he barely had enough time!_

_He waved his smaller yellow right hand in front of the kid's face. "Come on, little dude, wake up! I know I'm awesome, but that's no excuse to black out!" He chastised._

_Frany then blinked, shaking his head, processing what had just happened. He then chuckled to himself. "Sorry." He apologised. "But really, that was the best thing I've ever seen!"_

_The cyborg smirked again. "I can tell." He then adopted a more serious look. "Alright, from those two knockouts, I have far less time than I should, so I'll abridge it for ya." He then cleared his throat-_

"_Hold on!" Franky demanded, holding a T with his arms. "There's something I remember when you showed me your godly awesomeness." He called out._

_The cyborg frowned a bit. "And what's that, kid?" He challenged._

_Franky caught himself. "Two things, actually." He corrected, holding out his middle and index fingers. "First, you said 'SUPER!' at the end. That's _my_ catchphrase." Franky looked like he wanted to strangle the cyborg; he was personal about his personal image, dammit! "And second, another thing that I do; the pose!" He then did his signature pose, much like earlier. "This one. You did it exactly the same but with enough clout to bewitch a Sea King." He then straightened himself up again. "But that means-?!" He froze. "..." He seemed to have an epiphany. "Holy shit…"_

_The cyborg then began to smirk again._

_Franky's excitement shot back up to the golden 11 again. "YOU'RE ME!" He screamed. "In the future, I'm gonna be you! You're me! But that-" Franky's eyes went high-beam _again_. "I'M GONNA BE A CYBORG, HOLY HELL!"_

_By this point, the older Franky was laughing like crazy, almost a sugar high. "Yep, little me! It's you! But it's actually me!" He then struck the signature Franky pose again. "A SUPER me, to be precise!"_

_The younger Franky giggled like little kid, hyped as hell._

_It was only when white started to peer out of both the ground and the cyborg Franky that he got back down from the clouds._

"_W-wait!" He cried "What's happening?!" He started panicking! "Oh shit! Are you dying!"_

_Older Franky laughed. "Nah, I'm good," He answered. "You just decided to sleep for so long that all the time I have here went by at lightspeed." With a shrug, more light began to erupt. Suddenly, it wasn't so dark anymore. Hell, even younger Franky had some light coming out, which scared the shit out of him._

"_Alright, kid, listen up!" The latter quickly shot his attention to his future self. "I'll be brief here; you're about to see the greatest ship to ever sail the sea! When you find it, get over there!"_

"_Huh?!" Young Franky was confused. "Whaddaya mean?! Where am I going?"_

_"Wait for when you get down there!" Older Franky shot down. "Also, if I remember time and age correctly, you'll find two people on the ship!" He held out his big red left hand, which popped out the smaller yellow one to pull out two fingers like his past self had earlier. The light was getting far brighter and more abundant now. "One's a skeleton. A ridiculously tall skeleton. The other's a Fish-Man, just like Tom!"_

_Young Franky was confused as hell. A dope ship is nice and all, but why such a weird selection of creatures? "Why, though?!" was the demand. It had almost no gravity behind it, though._

"_Just accept it and get SUPER ready, would ya?!" Older Franky roared._

"_Okay, okay, fine!" Young Franky whined, pouting. The light was coating over half of both of them, and almost all around them, not a single black spot in sight._

"_Good." Older Franky moved into the signature Franky pose. "Now, GO KICK SOME ASS!" He demanded, a wicked smile aboard._

_Young Franky couldn't help but follow suit, a massive smile adopted to his features. Kick ass, he says? He'll go however many extra miles were on that road! "Loud and clear, Franky!" He reported, following the same pose. They stayed like this until nothing else could be seen but the light at the end of the tunnel._

_What a hell of a send off to yourself._


	6. The Ship of Dreams

DATE: JUNE 29th, 2019 (29/6/19)

* * *

"TOM! TOM!" Franky's yell surged through the house, the young man as hyper as can be.

Beside Tom on the adjacent couch, Iceburg covered his ears, groaning. "Jesus christ, Flunky, be a bit louder would you?!" He sarcastically complained. "It's barely eight in the morning! The whole city probably hears you!"

"Sorry, Ice-for-Brains." Franky laughed before turning to the long-horned cowfish. "Tom, listen to this! Listen to this!" He was practically bouncing on his feet the whole time.

Tom laughed to himself. "Somebody seems to be in a good mood!" That was today's most obvious statement. "Now then, what's got you so excited, Franky?"

Franky went to sit down next to Iceburg. "Okay, so I went to sleep on the floor last night, yeah? So-"

"Let me guess: you were in some hollow void in the middle of nowhere, and even there you were still sound asleep." Iceburg interrupted, chuckling to himself.

Franky was on high alert, standing up and pointing an accusing finger at Iceburg. "How did you find that out, Ice-for-Brains?!" He demanded.

Iceburg didn't expect that to _actually_ be the case. "What."

Franky sat back down, smiling again. "So yeah, like he said, I was in the middle of nowhere, still asleep…"

About twenty-seven minutes later, Franky had explained how he'd met the Cyborg that was himself, found another Fish-Man, specifically a whale shark, and a _skeleton_ of all things, and was just now talking about the ship.

"...So it ship has 6 small rooms underneath that can store different vehicles and _super_ weapons. I called it the Soldier Dock System! Hell, there was an ammunition room and a workshop in the same place, too! _And _there was an energy room right near those, too! _AND_ there was bloody _Treasure Adam Wood_ in storage right near the paddles! It's crazy!"

Tom was intently listening the whole time. To hear that another Fish-Man was aboard in Franky's dream place was interesting in and of itself, let alone the skeleton, but when Franky started talking about the ship itself, he _really_ went into detail, finding things that the other two hadn't even noticed after years of being there, decades for the skeleton. Moreso impressive was how, dream or not, the ship hadn't stopped for almost as long as the skeleton had been alive. That was what, over 50 years? Kind of ridiculous.

Hell, even Iceburg was listening. Now, he was curious of what it looked like. "Oi, Franky." He tried grabbing Franky's attention.

"Yeah?" Hook, line and sinker.

"What does the ship look like? Like, proper design?"

Ice-for-Brains had a point; he hadn't told them that yet. Actually, he could up that ante. "I'll be right back!" Franky quickly ran from the room, leaving the other two behind.

During this, Iceburg turned to his boss/adoptive parent. "What do you think about what the hell he just said?" He asked, eyebrow raised.

Tom's expression barely changed at all. "I believe him." He replied, bush untouched. "It may sound odd, but I wouldn't be surprised if a world in dreams is actually a thing." He then smiled. "Besides, not only does he meet more people, but the design of this ship sounds absolutely splendid!" He chuckled to himself.

Iceburg nodded, a small smile himself. "Fair point." He agreed.

Franky then busted back into the room, pencil on his right ear and a rolled up piece of A3 in his left arm. He held out the paper in his hand. "Here we are."

Iceburg was confused. "Here _what_ is?"

Tom simply smiled. "I take it you drew the ship for reference?" He asked.

Iceburg gave Tom a 'look'. "Look, boss, I get Franky's a fast learner at shipwright stuff, but there's no way in hell he-"

"-drew the whole thing?" Franky offered, unraveling the paper to show that, yes, he had drawn the whole design of the ship in a mere two minutes. A front, back, left side, eagle-eye, and diagonal view, all 5 of them with little notes about each thing displayed. "I was thinking of doing a few drawings based on each floor in detail, but figured that'd waste another minute."

Iceburg gaped at the paper before him, words shoved back where the sun don't shine, never to be seen again. "What in the goddamn fuck." He cursed, flabbergasted.

Tom was also surprised, but after what talent Franky had offered when he first found him (and the Battle Frankies he kept making, he was at what, 4 now?), he wasn't_ too_ surprised. Moreso, he was reading the designs Franky had made, the latter already handing him the paper.

"Tahahahaha!" He laughed. "It's a beautiful ship, indeed! I didn't expect a brig sloop to be so creative in design, yet so functionable!" He handed the paper back to Franky. "This ship is truly well made, and I'm glad to have seen it for myself!"

Iceburg got a glimpse when Tom was reading over it (almost as quickly as Franky wrote up the bloody thing), and even he had to admit he was impressed. "Gotta give it to you Flunky, you three have a pretty nice ship."

Franky jumped onto the table and performed his signature pose, with the minor difference being he was holding the paper in both hands rather than having them enclosed. "You're damn right we do!" He bragged.

Iceburg wondered something else. "So what's it called?"

Still in his pose, Franky looked down to the two of them. "Hm?"

Iceburg shrugged. "Well yeah," He continued. "I mean, aren't you the one insisting all ships be named?"

Franky dropped down from the table, hand to his chin. "Good point." He agreed. "I remember Jinbe called it 'Sunny' at one point, and Brook said that was what he was told when he got there," Franky crossed his arms, sighing. "I still think Sunny by itself is a bit of a dull name, though."

Tom gave a hearty laugh. "Tahahaha. Let's give the ship a name then!" He peered down to Iceburg. "Do you have any ideas?"

Iceburg looked back at the design Franky had placed onto the table, using two coasters to stop it from rolling into itself. "Hmmm…" He pondered, hand on his chin. The ship was grand and colourful, but seemed to beg for a simple name. Clean cut, but enough to show what it was. What it could _be_.

Franky had yet another epiphany. He seemed to be getting a lot of those lately. "Wait. What if we called it a Battle Franky!?"

Iceburg and even Tom pinched their noses. "Oh god no…" Iceburg was sick of those things, and Tom thought the idea was just flat out stupid. Why would they even call it a Battle Franky anway?! Nobody knows who built it!

"Alright, all in favour of naming it 'New Battle Franky, Lion Gang Champion', say Super!" Franky declared.

"OH to the HELL to the **NO!**" Iceburg roared. A Battle Franky was bad enough, but that name was more of a curse than anything else. Frankly, he'd feel sorry for any ship with such a name. Not that Flunky'd ever listen, though.

Said kid pouted immaturely, mad that they didn't understand his vision. "Oh come on, guys," He muttered. "It's perfect! What else could it be called?!"

Tom was looking back toward the paper in his hands. "On second glance, the figurehead looks like a sunflower." He spoke his mind.

Sharp teeth and white eyes, Franky was appalled and confused. "How in the hell does it look like a bloody _sunflower_?!" He all but demanded. How did that make sense?! It was a fucking lion, clear as day!

"You know, boss, he had a point." Iceburg countered, looking across at the diagram himself.

"Hm?" Tom hummed. "How so?"

Iceburg looked back to the paper. "It's more so the sun than anything."

Back the the old grind. "YOU'RE JUST AS _SUPER_ LOST, ICE-FOR-BRAINS!"

The response was mutual. "AND _YOU'RE_ A MASSIVE HYPOCRITE, FLUNKY!"

Tom grabbed their heads and slammed them into one another. "BE QUIET, YOU TWO! I'm trying to read this thing!" He yelled before going back to read the diagram again. The other two sat on their respective seats, Iceburg heaving a loud sigh and Franky pouting like a spoiled brat.

Suddenly, Iceburg's eyes widened. "Hold on," He breathed. "Let me see that again." He quickly rushed back next to Tom to look at the front view of the again. He muttered something again. "...thousand seas…"

Franky looked up at the two, having heard that last part. "You say something, Ice?" He inquired.

Iceburg looked back over the paper to Franky. "Franky, the other two on the ship; you said they called it Sunny, right?"

Franky was a bit confused now. "...yeah?"

"And you said that you talked with your future robot self, which means they may have done the same, right?"

Franky nodded. "Probably," He agreed with slight hesitation. "I dunno, I just joined last night."

Iceburg smiled, which was rare from him towards Franky. "So what if this ship's been named before?" He asked as if he broke the Da Vinci code. "What if this ship was made in their time, too? What if Sunny is _part of the original name_?"

Franky's eyes widened. "Duuuude…" He muttered. He didn't have the thinking capacity for this shit, so it was a good thing Ice-for-Brains was here to fill that part.

Tom was a bit thrown off. "What are you trying to say, Iceburg?

Iceburg cleared his throat. "When you asked what I said, I was looking at that ship and saw something," His head moved up, looking at the ceiling. More specifically, the sky beyond it. "What I saw was a ship with a sunny smile to sail a thousand seas. "He looked back down, shaking his head with a small headache. "I'm too young for this moral stuff…" He muttered. He looked back up to Franky, as well as Tom beside him. "Boss, Franky, I may have found a name for the ship, or at least what it _once was_."

Tom laughed. "Very well then. Let's hear it!" He had to be honest, he was eager to hear what idea Iceburg had. Of course, looking over at Franky, he didn't even compare.

"Yeah, Ice-for-Brains! Come on, let's hear it!" He was franky bounding on his feet.

"Calm down, Flunky." Was the response. "Okay, so here's my suggestion for a name of the ship; one that looks the part, and shows what it can do. How's about-?"

* * *

Jinbe had a hand to his chin. "The Thousand Sunny?" He wondered. After hearing Franky had told two people he knew the whole thing, he and Brook grew concerned. Fortunately, they were two people Franky knew personally. One was a long-horned cowfish Fish-Man named Tom, who was apparently an incredible shipwright, known as one of the best in the world. The other was a fellow older apprentice, Iceburg, who Franky seemed to regularly call Ice-for-Brains with no hesitation nor correction. They almost sounded like brothers, honestly.

Right now, Franky was going through a whole spiel about what he'd told them and what they thought. Jinbe called bullshit on the whole diagram-in-a-minute he'd mentioned, but he managed to replicate both the ship and the diagrams 1:1 in a mere 52 seconds. The kid hat a talent with ships, goddamn.

"Yep!" Franky exclaimed. "Ice-for-Brains suggested it because when I showed him and Tom the Sunny, he said it had a sunny smile that could sail a thousand seas!"

Brook suddenly perked up. "You know, I think that's what our future selves might have named this ship." He wondered, looking up.

Franky had a massive grin again. "That's what Ice said! 'What it once was'." He cheered.

Jinbe looked on at this whole thing, hand on his chin. "We may be onto something here."

Brook was confused. "Onto what, exactly?" He asked.

Jinbe turned to the skeleton. "I mean ourselves that we met before coming here. Like, how did they end up, what did they do, did we all meet then, what caused them to talk to us, _how we end up here every night_. Those kinds of things."

Brook nodded. "Fair enough." He passively replied. "I don't tend to think about it much; I'm just grateful this place exists at all."

Jinbe sighed. "You're being a bit too passive on this, you know." He muttered.

"And when did you become the conspiracy theorist?"

"When there were bread crumbs to how the hell this is possible. I'm grateful myself, yes, but I can still be curious, can't I?"

"Of course you can, Jinbe. It's just a bit concerning seeing you of all people thinking about this kind of stuff."

"The hell is _that_ supposed to mean?!"

Franky watched this exchange go on with a smile abroad. This was where he was going every night now, huh? To talk with a tweenage Fish-Man and a courteous skeleton each night like they were a second family? To have some freedom to do what he wished upon an awesome ship like this one?

He'd be all for it.

Now if only Brook hadn't locked the cola somewhere in the fridge. Where did they hide the straws here?

* * *

**4 Years later**

* * *

After he had seen Jinbe train back when he was a child, Brook had decided to retake his own training since. Be it on his own ship in the Florian Triangle, or here on the Thousand Sunny. He was glad the Dream Realm was a thing, as theoretically, one could quite literally train 24/7 and still be able to keep awake and go to sleep, due to how the physical body was still asleep during time in the Dream Realm. Honestly, as Franky put it when he first heard of this advantage, "That sounds busted as hell!". And he had a point; the advantage given was fucking _colossal_.

He'd actually done this for a good two months after Jinbe had shown up, but felt that he'd get lonely on the Sunny. Of course he'd still be able to meet people back on Fish-Man Island, but being lonely at all is a curse almost nobody deserved. As such, he'd stopped to make time to interact with Jinbe more. It started out as awkwards as scientifically possible, but as they grew closer, even if it simply meant the company of one another, they were able to talk for possibly hours aboard the Sunny, be it tales of old from Brook, or the daily life of Jinbe, or from the latter, history about Fish-Man Island as well as Fish-Men and Merfolk kind in general.

It was honestly incredibly intriguing. Hell, when he found something confusing in the history books in the library, he'd often ask Jinbe what was true and what was altered for the authors to save face. It was a shame how many times he'd have to go to Jinbe; just goes to show how many lies are shown to the public to either make a quick buck or simply save a public image they really shouldn't have any right to possess.

Anyway, he was currently training his swordsmanship as we speak on a few dummies he circled himself in, his trusty cane-sword within his grasp. He'd been training various angles and retreats for the past half hour now, doing hour-long training sessions daily again. It'd been a bit since he did this, but as he said years prior, it'd be a shame if all of his skills just rusted, so he needed to stay on top of it and keep going. After all, there was always the chance someone could finally pull him out of that damned fog.

Jinbe walked down the stairs to the deck where Brook was only to FEEL THE COMFORTABLE GRASS, HOLY HELL THIS NEVER GETS OLD beneath his feet and find Brook training.

"You're still going at it?" He asked the skeleton.

Brook paused for a moment to turn to Jinbe. The former hadn't even broken a sweat, amazingly enough. Then again, skeleton. "Naturally. If I stop for too long, I might waste all the time dedicated to training prior."

Jinbe raised an eyebrow. "You stopped training for a few years until a couple months ago, and yet your skills were damn close to never had been lost at all. I say you're doing fine."

Brook sighed. "A 'few years' is far too long, Jinbe. And as you said, 'damn near'. 'Damn near' is not 'just as'. I lost track, and now I have momentum."

"If you're just maintaining skills, that doesn't mean you need to do this thing daily, you know," Jinbe retorted. "Hell, even twice a week did you fine a couple years after I showed up."

Brook's eye sockets turned weary. "I'm sorry, Jinbe, I just don't want to lose my touch is all. Even if it worked once, I don't want to risk such an outcome as losing my ability to fight."

Jinbe gave a small smile. "And as I said, you'll be fine. If anything, if you're doing this thing an hour a day, you might as well try to _improve_ than maintain. Isn't that the whole point of training to begin with?"

Brook's jaw lowered. He had a point; training was for _training_, to become _better_, not to stay the exact same. If that were the case, he may as well do some stretches instead.

He straightened himself out. "I'll be damned, Jinbe." He spoke. "It seems my wise is rubbing off on you after all!"

Jinbe sighed. "Oh, shut up." He replied crankily, though his smile said differently. "If anything, my wit is rubbing off."

Brook raised a finger. "You need wit of your own to give first." He informed.

Before Jinbe could give an actual cranky retort, Franky busted through the front door, running down to the grassy deck. Compared to a few years back, he was now wearing a yellow open hawaiian shirt with green trees and brown stumps (the classic), grey/silver goggles, and black speedos. His hair was now pointing straight up, and he'd started to grow hair on his legs.

"Guys, guys, listen!" Franky shouted, breathing heavily. Unlike other times he said something of the like, where he wanted to tell them a story of his day or something crazy that'd happened, he wasn't looking all too happy. If anything, he seemed distressed.

Jinbe turned to look at the preteen. "What's wrong?" He asked, concerned.

"Okay, so you know who Roger is, right?" Franky asked the two of them.

Brook looked a little confused. "Roger?" He asked. "I remember a Rookie with that name, but-"

Jinbe seemed to get the message. "As is, the pirate who sailed the world?"

Franky nodded frantically. "Yeah, him. The one everyone's calling Pirate King!"

Brook seemed aghast at this information. "'Pirate King'? Roger?" He asked. "Yohohohoho! Goes to show how long I've been out of the game!"

Franky caught that Jinbe somehow knew, assuming that some kinds of newspapers had gotten to Fish-Man Island of all places to spread information. "Okay, so you know how he died recently, right?"

Jinbe growled. "Indeed," He didn't seem happy. "I'd recently visited Fish-Man Island itself, specifically the capital, and there were nonstop pirates, one after another." His eyes narrowed into a glare. "Those words of Roger's has sent a frenzy among pirates!"

Franky lowered his head. "Sorry, dude." He muttered. "But yeah, when he died, they sent out to kill anyone on the crew or who helped the Roger Pirates."

Brook's eye sockets widened. "Without context, that sounds like some kind of genocide."

Franky nodded. He then turned pale. "There's something else," He breathed out. "Normally, shipwrights don't get arrested for building ships for pirates, let alone _executing them_." He growled.

It was when tears started coming out of Franky's eyes that the two knew this was truly serious. "What's the problem, Franky?" Brook asked, wanting to know how this affected him so deeply.

Franky was now downright sobbing, sniffling in a few times. "I-It…" He whimpered. "It's T...It's T-Tom. _He_ b-built the Oro Jackson!" He cried, breaking down in tears.

Brook and Jinbe's eyes widened, shocked. They remember Franky always talking about Iceburg - the brother he never wanted - And Tom, his and Iceburg's boss, the two being shipwright apprentices. From what they'd heard, Tom was said to be the world's greatest shipwright. Brook had been surprised when he heard Tom was in Water 7 and had never known, let alone asked. Jinbe could've sworn he'd heard the name before, especially since, according to Franky, Tom came from Fish-Man Island, along with a Mermaid with a split tail, Kokoro.

"Oh god…" Brook was distraught. Even if he never knew Tom, he did know that a possible loss of family was heartbreaking, and that nobody deserves to go through such a thing.

Jibber was just as concerned, especially for a fellow Fish-Man, but he seemed to be more straightforward in attitude. Probably aging wiser quicker due to Brook. "So what's going to happen to him?" He asked Franky, hand on the 12-year-old's shoulder. If he wanted to help, they needed to know everything they can.

Franky wiped the tears off of his face with his arm, still shaking slightly. "W-well," He thought back to the events of where some government officials had come to Water 7 earlier today. The original plan was to simply apprehend and execute Tom, but they had seen uses for him, so they changed it to something different. "They s-said that the-ere'd be a t-t-trial for him in a couple days to see if he was guilty. F-for making the O-oro Jackson, I guess."

So they were using the trial as some sort of alternative. Was it for them to get their own way somehow with Tom? Or was there simply not enough physical evidence to just kill him then and there.

Brook walked over to where Franky was, lowering himself onto his right knee. "Franky," he started, tone somber. "I'm afraid there simply isn't anything we can do." He lowered his head in shame, beret and Afro covering his eyes. "All we can do is simply wait and hope that something comes up to help Tom."

Franky has been desperately hoping that Brook or Jinbe had an answer, as they often did. To hear this was heartbreaking for him. "But-"

"Listen, Franky," Jinbe cut Franky off, knowing what he'd cry about. "We can't help Tom, especially from where we are. All we _can_ do is offer you some advice."

Franky had some kind of hope again now. "Like what?" What kind of advice?

"You may not be a witness to the building of the Oro Jackson, but you are a bystander, as well as close to Tom." Brook answered. "As such, you may accidentally say something that could work in their favour."

Jinbe took over. "All we can suggest is you stay calm, and talk as little as possible if not at all," Jinbe was extremely serious right now, especially with somebody's life on the line, let alone somebody close. "Remember, Tom's life is on the line."

Franky slowly nodded, hopefully understanding. "Yeah…" he breathed, barely making a sound nor movement. "Keep quiet, and it'll be better off, right?"

Jinbe nodded. "That's all we can really hope for."


	7. Hit and Run

DATE: JULY 3rd, 2019 (3/7/19)

* * *

What even _was_ the point anymore?

Even before all of this, she'd been the island's outcast for god knows how long. Names, insults, enough rocks to build a dam, punches to the back of the head, enough blood lost to clone herself, _freak_. That's all they saw her as; a freak. Even before she ate that weird fruit, she'd been excluded and exiled from just about everything. Even from her own foster home with that bitch of an aunt-in-law.

And then came the government. When she finally had a group of people to call friends, home, _family_,god forbid, even a friendly giant who had seen powers like hers before. Hell, he even taught her how to laugh! All of this shut down because the archaeologists wanted to know what happened. Not even to use as blackmail, but to simply find out what had happened in history. All of them, gone, because of that damn...Spandine, was it…?...yeah, that's what one of his men called him. That damn Spandine pressed that button on that stupid gold snail and destroyed not only her life, but flat out _everything_ of her home.

Ohara was but tongue and cheek of the past now, burned to the ocean below. She heard when running that they were trying to throw the books into the lake, but she didn't know if that worked out or not. You couldn't find out, either. The whole island was a massive fireball, a mushroom poking out that was the giant tree that surrounded a majority of the island.

Even when Saul tried to help her, he got killed by that stupid ice guy, who said they were old friends. Who freezes their own friend alive?! Who could do something so cruel?! And for what?! And then the same guy makes a line of ice to help her escape. As if he wasn't the _reason she needed to escape in the first place_!

And here she lie now, twilight closing its curtains as the night came to be. Sailing in a tiny rowboat in the middle of nowhere _to_ nowhere, nothing with her but said boat, the clothes on her back, and PTSD that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

So what even _was_ the point? Whatever it was, she couldn't be brought to care less anymore. She had lost everything, even things she didn't own or people she never knew; innocents who didn't deserve to die over something so petty.

All she could do was laugh. That's what Saul said, right? "Dereshishishishish-shi...shi...sh…" she couldn't even do _that_. As such, the laughing transformed into crying, tears scarring her dry face as she fell asleep shaking. Was it from the cold night air, or was it from losing all hope that, honestly, was never there to begin with?

* * *

It had been two years since Tom's trial for the creation of the Pirate King's vessel, the Oro Jackson. More specifically, since the trial had gone on hiatus. Tom had bargained that he could save Water 7, which was honestly dying at the time, by creating a special vessel to transport goods, people, supplies and the like. However, rather than a ship, Tom proposed the Sea Train, a special train that would run on buoyant tracks through the toughest waters to deliver whatever it may carry.

When the judge and jury agreed to delay the trial until the sea train's completion; a projected ten years from the initial trial, Franky was ecstatic that Tom had a good chance of living, holding it in with Iceburg until after everything was finished. After that point, he was cheering like crazy with Iceburg crying next to him.

When he entered the Dream Realm, he immediately ran to the front of the deck and cheered a loud "**YES!**", which caused Brook and Jinbe to assume that something must have happened within Tom's favour. After explaining everything to them, Franky kept crying, his seniors glad that his boss/father figure had a chance to live again. Besides, trial and shitty government aside, the sea train could be massive in economics and general movement, so there was a bonus in the pot.

Now, two years later, the process of building the sea train had gone incredibly well. It looked to be in good shape, it was managing to stay within the 10 year time frame, and Tom still managed to life a life as both the boss and adoptive parent for both Franky and Iceburg. All in all, it was looking pretty snazzy right about now.

On the contrary, although Franky's shipwright skills had massively improved, most of his creations were still Battle Frankys. He was up to about fifteen now. He helped out Tom and Iceburg, naturally, but dammit he wanted to build a ship that could kill a Sea King!

The Thousand Sunny hadn't changed too much during that time, nor had its inhabitants. Franky himself had started taking up using the workshop downstairs for personal projects when he wasn't upstairs with the others, Jinbe continued to train in Fish-Man Karate when he got the chance, now starting to use the invisible ocean around the Sunny (which, it turns out, is just stupidly clear), and Brook was mixing between his training for two twenty minute cycles a day, and doing crosswords. He found a few old ones from a couple years before he died, as well as some new ones that they found that Franky had said we're from Water 7. He had also been interested in Sudoku, but no cigar as of now.

For now, however, it was a day of relaxing. Every second Friday a fortnight, it was nothing but relaxation, be it generally sitting around doing nothing, reading a book, board or card games, or talking with someone else. Sunday was relaxing too, but there was work still often done then as well, even in the minimum.

Right now, the group was talking about how Jinbe now regularly went to Fish-Man Island's inner city, especially the markets and plaza. Turns out quite a few different Fish-Men did this from the District, though for better or worse.

"But why would someone do that?" Brook asked, confused.

Jinbe sighed in response. "I'm not too sure myself. All I _do_ know is he seemed desperate."

Franky raised an eyebrow from his seat on the grass, sitting up. "I still don't know why you'd steal something from such a _super_ open place, let alone a pen. If anything, Fish-Man Island's plaza just sounds like a fancy bazaar."

Jinbe nodded. "Honestly, you're not that far off," He confirmed. "When there aren't festivities nor formalities, there are often markets as far as the eye can see. Considering the items sold are mostly from Fish-Man Island, though, you're unlikely to find anything all too interesting."

Brook sat up from his lawn chair. "What about when the items are from _outside_ Fish-Man Island?"

"HA!" A short burst of a howl came from Jinbe. "It's a fucking frenzy, let me tell you. When a foreign object comes through the market, everyone goes batshit crazy." He chuckled to himself. "No matter what the item is, no matter its origins, no matter its value and/or use, each brawl is for the history books, and the item is sold at a ridiculous price from voluntary bets alone. Every. Single. Time."

Franky laid back down on the lawn. "I mean, can you blame 'em?" He questioned, missing the 'yes' that Jinbe very obviously muttered before continuing. "You'd think they're _super_ curious about the outside world, despite the only difference being wildlife and species and shit like that."

Jinbe chuckled again. "You have no idea how many times I've been called fickle over that."

"Yohohohoho." Brook laughed. "I take it you don't participate in betting for them much?"

A shrug was his answer. "Not really," Jinbe replied. "I just watch them."

Franky laughed. "What I wouldn't give to see the most _super_ obvious goose chase ever. Must be crazy!"

"Indeed it is, Franky," Jinbe sagely nodded, smiling. "Indeed it is."

Franky stood up, stretching. He'd been laying and sitting for an hour now. "Alright, anything else?"

Jinbe looked disappointed. "Well, Arlong's still spouting anti-human propaganda to his 'underlings',for one," When Jinbe used air quotes, that's when you knew they weren't sarcastic. Until he was, of course. "I wish Hody Jones wasn't so invested in Arlong's ideals of superiority. The kid could do so much better for himself."

Franky tried to remember Arlong from conversations he had with Jinbe in the past. "I just remembered; aren't the 'Arlong Pirates' just a bunch of punks who harass people for no reason?"

Jinbe nodded. "Yeah. Bullies is actually the most accurate description I can think of."

Franky sat back down, having straightened and loosened his muscles again. "Well that fucking sucks." He moped. "And people say that we're _super_ different."

"Indeed." Brook nodded. "Why, the only difference I see is our personal attributes. As people, we're still the same."

Jinbe was so thankful he was one of the people brought to the Dream Realm. "I have you two to thank for proving that." He spoke with sincerity.

Franky performed his pose with his arms and waist, sitting down. "Don't sweat it, bro!" He replied.

Brook now stood up from his spot. "On a similar note, Jinbe, I apologise in advance if this is a bad time, but what of Tiger?"

Jinbe's face returned to neutral before shaking his head. "No, I'm afraid not." He answered solemnly.

Franky looked shocked. "Wait, really?" He asked, in which he received a nod from Jinbe. "Huh. Didn't Ti say he'd only be a couple weeks?"

"Yes," Was the reply. "And I took that response as 'a couple weeks', _not_ 'a couple _months_.'"

Franky's turn to sigh now. "Damn, has it really been that long?"

Brook nodded, just as saddened. "Aye. Time flies, yes?"

Jinbe and Franky agreed. "Amen." They replied simultaneously.

Jinbe's face lowered. "I do have one theory, and from what I've heard from Otohime from when she visits, I don't like it at all."

Brook caught Jinbe's drop in temperature. Clearly it wasn't a good thing. "And what might that be, Jinbe?" He asked the Fish-Man.

Jinbe seemed to dread what he was about to say. "You see, I fear-"

**SPLASH!**

That cut him off _instantly_, as well as the train of thought as his companions. Whatever Jinbe was going to say would have to wait, as they needed to prepare for another body on board.

Jinbe stood up as soon as the three had snapped out of their shock of new blood aboard the Sunny. "Alright, that came from out front." His voice was damn commanding these days. Probably from the training with Tiger and here, as well as the leadership he was beginning to build up from within Fish-Man island. "Everyone to the bow;" He smiled. "Let's see who it is this time."

Franky was grinning ear to ear like a madman. This was his first time seeing a new member from the other side. "I'm so excited!" He cheered.

Brook laughed, pulling out his handheld telescope. "Then let's see who has arrived." He proclaimed as they each ran to Sunny's prowl to inspect what the void dragged in.

It took only ten seconds of looking, but Brook spotted something a little to the right. "Over there!" He exclaimed, pointing in said direction.

What they saw, though, was a body (naturally). The problem was that it was facing down. In the water. And the person looked human.

They all immediately paled. "Oh no." was the chorus that broke the silence.

Instantly, Brook went to grab the first-aid kit, Franky ran to grab the ladder, and Jinbe dove straight into the water, swimming over to the newcomer as quickly as possible; there was still a good chance they were still alive.

When Jinbe reached the person, who had started to sink into the water below, he grabbed them before they could fall into the abyss. From what he could tell, it was a little girl, no older than eight, with short black hair reaching her shoulders. It wasn't the tarnished maroon/violet dress that caused him to gasp, but the injuries she had sustained. She had scratches, bruises, even places where blood must have seeped from how the holes and cuts on her looked.

This kid had been through some shit.

He immediately shot up, as even though he could last underwater, the girl seemed human, so she couldn't. "BROOK! FRANKY!" He called out, where the former had already gotten the kit and was waiting on deck, and the latter was still a the prowl to check what was going on. "IT'S A LITTLE GIRL, HUMAN I ASSUME! SHE'S SUSTAINED COUNTLESS INJURIES EVERYWHERE!"

From on deck, Brook's head lowered. "That's no good," He muttered to himself. "Franky, please collect some fruits. She may be hungry when she comes to."

Franky nodded. "You got it." Rarely was Franky fully serious, but lo and behold.

As Franky went to collect some tangerines, apples, and a couple bananas, Jinbe was climbing the ladder, young girl wrapped in his left arm as he climbed. He looked down to her. "Don't worry, you'll be alright soon enough." He whispered to her, though she didn't respond, being unconscious.

Franky rushed back down, fruit in a small wooden bowl. "Fruit at the ready!" He called out.

Jinbe the finished climbing, hauling himself and the young girl over the railing and onto the deck.

As Jinbe carefully set the girl onto the grassy deck, he stepped back, Brook and Franky waiting for something to happen. Jinbe saw this and deadpanned. "She's not going to magically awaken just because you want her to, you know." When they shrugged in response, he simply sighed and took a seat himself. Bloody comfortable as it was, now wasn't the time to spasm about it. That can come later.

After around seven minutes of nothing, Brook reached for an apple from the bowl. Can skeletons even eat apples?

Franky slapped his boney hand away. "Weren't you the one who said she may need these?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

Brook turned back to the girl, who was still unmoving. "Fair point. I apologise." He responded.

Come a few more seconds, they heard some groaning coming from the girl, as well as a bit of straining, probably resetting her muscles. The three immediately focused on what would happen next.

The girl stretched her arms for a moment before rubbing her eyes. "Luopio Island already?" She groaned, slightly pained. When she opened her eyes, she saw she was on a ship with lots of colours and a deck with...grass? Why did it have grass? She also saw the sky was black. Frankly, aside from the ship, _everything_ was black as far as the horizon could see. And then there was a very tall skeleton, a bipedal whale shark, and a teenager with hairy legs wearing speedos.

"**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!**" Naturally, as any single-digit genocide advocate would do in such a situation presented, she screamed in sheer terror for her very life.

When she backed up into the opposite railing, which was like, ten metres away, the three of them just...stared.

Franky turned to the others. "Should we have seen this coming?"

"We should have seen this coming." Was the unanimous response.

Franky got up onto his feet and started walking towards the terrified little girl. "Alright then." He groaned.

The girl backed up further into the railing, as much as she could've gone, whimpering to herself.

When Franky reached her, he lowered down to her height on his left knee. "Alright sis, I'll be _super_ blunt; who are you and who hurt ya?" He asked, looking her in the eye. And for around ten seconds, that's all they did; stare each other down.

Until she proceeded to punch him in the face and make a break for the veranda.

Franky, having reeled back from the pain, brought himself up, holding his left cheek. "The fuck was that?!" He yelled at her, confused as she entered through the door.

When Franky broke into a run after her, Brook and Jinbe looked at each other in confusion. Maybe they should let Franky handle this.

* * *

Franky looked all across the ship; the kitchen, the Soldier Dock System, the bathroom, even the crow's nest in case she ran back out.

By the time he reached one particular room, he could firmly say she was in here; the door was _always_ open, and here it was closed, possibly locked. Wait, did it have a lock? He never checked.

"Oi, sis," Franky called out from outside. "I know you're in here, so come out and explain what the hell happened to ya, kay?" When there was no response, possibly to mask up her presence, Franky continued. "Kid, this room's always open. _Always_. So tell me how it's suddenly closed now of all times." Franky could be wise and configurative when he needed to be.

"Just go away!" Finally, she spoke up. "You're not going to hurt me!" She accused.

Franky just deadpanned at the door before him. "Yeah, like I'm just going to walk away when you need help, sis. Go crack a new nut."

"LEAVE. ME. ALONE!" She screamed from inside. She wasn't having it.

Unfortunately for her, neither was Franky. Fortunately, he remembered the only locks here were the fridge, the bathroom, and the safes. "Kid, there's three things wrong with this situation right about now."

"Like what?!" The screams were getting quieter now, but were still fierce and filled to the brim with fear.

"One, I'm trying to be a decent person here and help you out. Honestly, you look like someone tried to kill you before you escaped and then somebody else tried to kill you. Besides, Jinbe and Brook would've done the same as me now. Probably better, too; I'm awful at this comfort shit."

With no response, Franky pressed on. "Two, we'll brief you later on how exactly, but this place is an endless void. The only things here are this ship, the people on board, and a literally endless ocean in a void. So you'll have to talk with us sometime sooner or later." This was met with a bit of grumbling. The girl probably never assumed the place would be _limitless_, but hey, it just be like that.

"And three," He opened the door, causing the girl to flinch back behind the small table with a gasp. "This is the _Men's_ Quarters. Like, where the three of us sleep and stuff. Filled with testosterone, I think Brook called it." He lowered back down to her level again, still holding his cheek in case she decided to hit and run again. "There's literally a Women's Quarters a few rooms down, obviously nobody using it. If you were going to hide somewhere, go hide somewhere that either you can use, or _doesn't_ end up with the rest of us; it's a terrible choice of a hiding spot. Believe me, I've played way too many games of Hide & Seek here."

With that, he got up, the girl still seeming afraid. "Come on, I'll take you to the Women's Quarters now. Might even be able to get you some new clothes!" He then walked off. The girl just stood there in place. Did she go with him? It does suck that this is literally their sort of headquarters, let alone where they sleep. But what if he was leading her into a trap? What if he was lowering the drawbridge only to slaughter her where she stood? Buttering someone up was a thing, you know.

Franky came back, peering back into his sleeping room. "Well, are you coming or not?" He asked, before heading back over. Shaking out of her stupor, she started walking behind Franky to wherever he was leading her. They probably didn't even have a Women's Quarters here at all. All of them were guys!

"So tell me girlie," Franky tried. "What the hell happened to you? You look like you visited hell and came back alive."

The girl didn't answer, just continuing to walk behind him.

Franky pouted. "Fine. Keep your injuries then." He then looked back forward and sighed. "Look, even I can see you don't want to talk with anybody right about now, so I'm just gonna take you to the Women's Quarters, drop you off there, and let you sleep it off. We'll explain what's going on another day."

"Just shut up already!" Franky turned to the girl in surprise. He did _not_ expect to hear that. "Just stop lying to me already! There is no Women's Quarters on a ship filled with_ guys_! There is no 'are you alright?' because you're just going to kill me anyway! Stop trying to lie to me just to make me feel better! JUST STOP IT!"

Franky just pointed to the wooden door with a face straight enough to carry a house. "Then what's that?" He asked before opening the door. While the Men's Quarters had a small table and cushions, a few cots and lockers, and some training gear/weapons, the Women's Quarters looked terrifyingly good. It had two nicely made and dressed beds, a small makeup table, a little light above the room, a side table between the two beds, and a bookshelf near the bed directly across from the door. There was also a couple chairs in the corner of the room with a small table in between, similar to the previous room but like it was actually in a house. "Does this look like a torture chamber to you? Or some kind of butcher shop?"

The girl's eyes were widened. It was real. And why did it look so good? It was just a room on a ship! "I-I…"

"Yeah, save it. I need to help get lunch set up." Franky replied. He then pulled the bowl of fruit from before from absolutely nowhere. "Oh yeah, here's the fruit we wanted to offer earlier." He then walked into the room to put the fruit onto the small coffee table. She followed in after him. He raised his hands up only to bring them back down. "So...yeah, that's that. You just rest up, you'll wake up, we'll talk another day."

...what? Wake up?

Before she could ask, Franky, walked out of the room. "Get some sleep, girlie," Franky told her before heading off. "We got a _massive_ briefing with you on what this place is." He then started to walk off to help Brook make a pulled pork pie. He'd been curious on how it'd turn out.

"W-wait!" He paused, turning back around to the girl standing in the middle of the room.

"Whatcha want?" Franky asked. _Now_ the kid speaks up.

She then proceeded to take a small bow. "T-Thank you." She replied. Even if this was a hoax, she still tried to be grateful.

Franky smiled, giving a thumbs up. "All good, girlie!"

"R-Robin."

"...come again?"

"Nico Robin. My name." She answered, an unreadable expression.

Franky smiled. "Neat," He responded. "I'm still probably just going to call you 'sis. Name's Franky, by the way." And with a shrug, he was off. What did pulled pork even taste like? Stretched bacon? God, he hoped it did.

After he left, Robin shook herself out of her shock that Franky was as casual as he was. It was...honestly disarming.

Regardless, she ignored the fruit on the table for now, opting to jump into the bed. She wasn't tired, but felt that she needed rest. She then thought back to what Franky said.

"_So...yeah, that's that. You just rest up, you'll wake up, we'll talk another day."_

Wake up?

Was this a dream or something? Then did that mean she had nothing to worry about? And if she was about to sleep, did that mean she was sleeping in her sleep? Holy hell, that sounds lazy.

Whatever. Think later, z's now.


	8. Devil Child

DATE: JULY 13th, 2019 (13/7/19)

* * *

Robin slowly opened her eyes, though everything was blurry. And cold. Wow, it was _cold_. Not even any ice from Kuzan around her, just plain old cold. Her eyes started to clear up a bit, the boat surrounding her just as it had before she fell asleep.

No, wait. She fell asleep on a pink bed in a ship. She met some teenager named Franky wearing swimming trunks, as well as a fat thing (maybe a fish with legs?) and a skeleton. Maybe she _did_ have a fever dream last night. Her life did get destroyed in one fell swoop, after all.

The least she could have done was grab one of the fruits on the table. Odds are they were still there. Bah, who was she kidding, she wasn't going back.

And what did _she_ mean to 'trust them'? An exhibitionist, a 'Fish-Man', and a perverted skeleton? Was this some kind of sick joke?! They could have killed her! Although, on the contrary, since the government wanted her head on a pike and her knowledge thrown off a cliff Sparta style, odds are that'd be a common worry anyway.

But back to her, what was that woman smoking?! How could she know how she felt?! How could she know the pain and suffering of having your whole island destroyed before your eyes and have to be on the run for the rest of your life?!

...oh yeah. There was _that_.

Besides, when her descriptions of the ship and its passengers were on the dot, she got so terrified she backed as far away as possible. How could she know?! Pardon her language, but how in the ever loving _**fuck**_ can somebody just casually know that like it's two dashes of sugar in a regular morning coffee?! It made no sense!

So she punched the one that came closer and ran. She felt bad, especially when he yelled at her in confusion, but she didn't care. This was too much for her little, yet massive brain to take in all at once. Legitimate knowledge? Sure. Factual research? Bring it. Experiments of the unknown? She could do it all day. But _this_?! Oh hell no, this is something out of a science fiction novel. _Then _came the embarrassment of hiding in what was literally their main sleeping quarters. And she denies them having a girl's one because they certainly looked like men to her. But _LORD AND BEHOLD THERE'S A WOMEN'S QUARTERS RIGHT THERE IN HER FACE_. She didn't believe them when it should _clearly_ be an obvious tiger trap, and yet there's one there with the most comfortable bed she'd ever seen, a beauty station which she thought was merely something the rich used to 'flex on the poor', even a coffee table and chairs for her to sit down and think about this whole thing for hours on end.

And it was real. _ALL OF IT_ was real. And yet, it happened in her dreams. When she was sleeping. Yet she could've sworn she was there the whole time. And the whole thing was driving her damn insane.

Now wasn't the time for that, though. She was still stuck in the middle of the ocean. If she remembered what Kuzan said about giving her a chance, Luopio Island shouldn't be far from where Ohara once was. A few days off, actually. She still had a couple more days to reset her life and hope to god the government didn't find her. Just avoid all contact, focus on rowing to the island with the few supplies she was lucky Kuzan had given her, and get that dream out of her head. Now was the time for reality and getting her new life together!

She _really_ missed the bed, though.

"Dereshishishishishi…" she tried laughing to herself. Seeing as it didn't work, she may have taken Saul's words too literally. Maybe just laugh in general, not his signature Dereshi. Huh. Maybe she does overthink things.

* * *

When she woke up that night, she'd expected to have been found by some marines that act like they're trying to help her, only to kill her right then and there, or maybe even find she'd just hit land. More than anything, she expected it to be rather chilly.

So when she woke up warm as hell, she was confused.

When she looked at herself, she was tucked into the pink bed she remembered from the other night- oh wait, this WAS the room from last night. The only difference was that the fruits seemed to be taken back from the table. She looked and saw that she was under a blanket and doona, neatly done. Oh god, it felt warm. _Much_ better than sleeping under the sky in the middle of the ocean. This was heaven, and she would believe so until proven otherwise. No really, at this point she was either insane or dead. No middle ground.

Robin almost moaned in joy when she sunk into the blankets. "So warm…" she hummed to herself.

"Yohohohoho. We're glad you like it, miss Robin."

Robin instantly squealed and hid under the blankets at the voice. "W-Who's there?!" She cried, head popping out of the foot of the bead. She squealed yet again after finding a skeleton in a fancy purple tuxedo with green highlights standing at the arch of the door.

"I am." The skeleton replied. "It's truly a pleasure to meet you properly, miss Robin. If memory serves correct, you're the First Lady to board the Sunny. Quite the milestone, I say!" He laughed to himself. "Oh, before I forget, manners," He then took a bow. "My name is Brook. The pleasure is mine."

Robin was intrigued about the skeleton, but ever since he bright it up, she'd been afraid of something. "H-How do you know my name?" She asked cautiously.

Brook rose his hat with a bony hand. "Franky told us from when you two met," He answered. "Anywho, I just came to inform you that you can either spend the first few days here just relaxing, as you seem to be in quite a lot of pain, or you can come up sooner and we can tell you what this place is. Whichever you prefer."

Robin remained unmoved. She seemed to be contemplating the information, but seemed to have no answer.

"So from what I heard when I entered, you seem to enjoy the bed, yes?"

At Brook's words, Robin nodded, smiling a little bit. "Yes," she replied. "I…have never had a bed before. It feels nice...warm…" She then dropped her guard instantly, seeping further into the mattress.

Brook looked shocked. "You...have never had a bed before?" He then proceeded to lower his top hat, presumably in respect. "My deepest condolences, miss Robin. I didn't know you've had such an unfortunate upbringing."

'You don't know the half of it.' Robin thought to herself. Her uncle was kind, nothing really bad happened with her cousin when they did speak in private a couple times, but her aunt-in-law _sucked_. She was a bitch, not all too hard to spot.

Robin then realised just how loose she was being right now, shooting up in shock. "W-Wait," She suddenly cried. "Why am I still here?!"

Brook had a surprised expression. "Ah, right. I completely forgot that's why I came here." He spoke before clearing his throat. Wait. He was a skeleton. How did he clear his...wait, what throat? "You see, this place is special. Odd, but special. It's a place within one's dreams."

Robin looked sceptical, still keeping her guard up. "'In one's dreams'?" She asked, sarcasm obvious.

Brook nodded. "Oh yes, miss Robin. I've been here since the age of nine! That was 59 years ago, mind you."

Robin looked shocked herself. If what this skeleton was saying was true, "fifty nine years?!" She cried, hands reaching forward on the bed.

Brook nodded again. "Indeed. For 29 years, I was here all alone, relaxing, training, studying, anything else that I could do with my time." He then paused for a bit. "And then I died." He casually concluded placing his hat back on his giant afro.

"HUH?!" Robin was beyond confused. "But didn't you say that this place is for dreams?!" She accused. "If you died, how are you here?!"

"The Revive-Revive Fruit." Brook replied, laughing a bit.

"..." Robin said nothing. Until she did. "Revi-huh?" She didn't get it. What kind of fruit was that?

Brook noticed her visible confusion "It's something called a Devil Fruit," He proceeded. "It gives you strange powers depending on the fruit."

Robin looked life she wanted to say something, but she didn't, instead opting to pull back into the bed. So warm…

"Hm?" Brook seemed concerned. "Is something wrong, miss Robin?"

Robin quickly shook her head from under the doona. "No no, everything's alright." She replied, although there was a bit of haste.

Brook seemed to notice it by his slight pause, but said nothing about it. "Very well then." You get some rest now. When you're ready, we'll talk more, okay?"

"Alright."

And with that, Brook seemed to have left from the sound of a closing door. Robin peered her head up and saw that the room was in fact empty sans herself.

She laid back into the pink bed, the comfiest she had felt in her whole life, thinking to herself: "'Devil Fruit'? Strange powers?" She then made a few extra hands on her elbow, like a pinwheel. She flexed her hands in an out. "Just like me…"

* * *

For the past five hours, Robin had been sleeping for an hour and spending the rest reading the eight or so books in the bookshelf beside the bead she used. One was a cookbook (what was that doing in the Women's Quarters she would never know), one on appeal and appearance (she really didn't care for that stuff in her current state), and, luckily for her, five of the others were on history. A couple from the West Blue, a couple on the East Blue, and one on the Grand Line, specifically the first half which the book called 'Paradise'. Seeing as it was known as the Pirate's Graveyard, why it was called Paradise she wouldn't get.

The last book was a small novel, the first volume of a story called 'The Rainbow Mist'. She really seemed to enjoy it, especially from how as we speak, she was more than halfway through with a smile on her dial.

Then the door creaked open.

"Hello?" A gruff voice spoke.

Robin squealed and hid under the covers, pretending to be asleep. From the footsteps she could hear, the person walked in anyway.

When the footsteps stopped, she felt a shadow over her.

"Where'd you get the book?"

Fuck. They knew she was awake.

Fuck. She forgot to hide The Rainbow Mist.

_Fuck_. Now she had to explain everything.

She pulled her head out of the covers, expecting to see an old man like Brook was, but instead found the giant blue thing from earlier. She gasped and froze in shock and a bit of fear.

"Hm?" The creature raised its _really_ curly eyebrow. "You never seen a Fish-Man before, kid?"

Robin indeed hadn't, but had read about them in one of the history books from earlier. It said how they were monsters that craved human flesh and all the like, but considering it was government-published, as well as what _they_ did a few days ago, she passed it off as the fattest of lies.

"N-No, that's not it." She spoke quietly. "You just...you look like an oni."

The creature just stood there, expression unmoving. "Oni, huh?" Then it...chuckled? "First time I've heard that one." Still smiling it sat on the floor. For god sake, sitting down, it matched her height! "Robin, right?" The Fish-Man asked, pointing a finger at her from a webbed hand.

Robin quickly nodded. "Mhm."

The Fish-Man also nodded. "Great, we got that out of the way. My name is Jinbe." They said. Probably a guy, provided Fish-Men had genders. "Now then, from yesterday, you didn't eat, and just slept on the bed all night. We had to tuck you into the bed so that you didn't get sick; you were freezing when we checked on you."

Robin froze. She was asleep all of last night she was here. And they grabbed her. "W-What did you do?" She asked, a bit shaken.

Jinbe raised an eyebrow. Again. He then put a webbed hand to his almost nonexistent chin. "That's a good point. What _did_ we do?" Did...did he seriously forget? "I dunno, I think I just picked you up and put you in the bed. Fairly certain Brook just tidied the bed before and after, said it'd be bad if you got sick."

Robin was…slightly in awe. Not that she'd admit it to this lot. She'd been so worried about things happening to her, and yet they helped her that night? Or did they? Were they just lying to her?

"Anyway, back to my point, where'd you get the book?" He asked, picking up The Rainbow Mist.

Robin shook her head, clearing her thoughts for the time being. "Oh," She pointed to the bookshelf beside her. "I grabbed it from there with the other books." It was obvious, wasn't it? Wasn't that what bookshelves did? _Be a shelf for books?_

Jinbe appeared slightly conflicted, a hand on his chin yet again. "I could've sworn that bookshelf was empty last we checked."

Robin's eyebrows raised. "It was?"

"Yeah. We do a maintenance check of the ship every month or two...or six. I don't remember. But the last one was a week ago, and I got put here, the Men's Quarters, and the kitchen." He pointed to the shelf. "So either you're lying and snuck into the Library and grabbed some random books, or that shelf is magic and gets new books whenever." Jinbe failed to remember that's exactly what happens in the Library too, as Brook had explained.

Robin's interest quickly peaked. "You have a Library here?!" She asked with a smile.

Jinbe nodded. "Yeah, not that big, though." He confirmed. "Anyway, why I came here," He pulled a wooden bowl from behind him. "We're trying the fruit again." He set the bowl onto the end of Robin's bed. "You didn't eat anything yesterday. As such, everyone became concerned. As such, you _will_ eat something tonight." He stood up, turning around to walk out. "If you don't like anything in the bowl, call out and Franky'll replace it with something else." He then walked out of the room, not even waiting for the "Thank you" He was fairly certain he wasn't getting.

When he left, Robin looked sadly at the door, sad she couldn't give a 'thank you' in gratitude. looked at the fruit bowl with curiosity. The order seemed different, and the bananas were split from one another. She presumed these were different from the fruit yesterday.

With that, she went to reach for one of the apples. It was a light green colour with a small stem, decently sized fitting her whole hand.

She took a small bite. It was slightly sour, but really delicious! She'd have to ask where they got these; deer didn't seem to be a greenhouse nor garden of sorts here. Upon the second bite, she had the back-of-the-head thought of whether or not it was poisoned and if it may kill her. By the third bite, her mindset was "to hell with it, everyone wants me dead anyway".

Everything until the core, she enjoyed with a smile. Never had anything tasted so good. _Ever_. When she finished, she found a small rubbish bin near the door at the entrance, walked over to it and placed the core into it.

She was thinking about eating a banana, also, so she grabbed that to eat it, as well as wrap herself into the blanket for warmth. However, before she could eat the banana, a sudden wave of tiredness washed over her.

"...sleepy…" She mumbled, falling asleep with the banana in her grasp.

* * *

When she woke up next, she was on her little boat. Suddenly, it wasn't so cold, presumably from the sun being directly above her head. Had she really slept in that badly?

When she noticed a seagull on the end of the boat, tilting its head to the side, she smiled a bit. "Sorry, I haven't got anything…" She told the water bird. She'd eaten the last of the food yesterday. Even in small morsels, the tiny supply barely lasted.

When the bird just kept staring at her, she got slightly mad. "Listen, I just said I don't have any food, so please go away."

When the bird just screeched at her, as if rejecting her claim, she got pissed off really quickly. "Go away! Shoo!" She waved her enclosed right hand at the bird, finally managing to successfully wade it off. However, she realised she was holding something when she squeezed her hand. She looked down to look.

A banana.

She dropped it into the boat in shock, slowly backing away from it. She didn't have a banana in the emergency supply, last she checked. But if not there, then how the hell-?!

The dream.

She was holding a banana before she fell asleep, wrapped tightly and, frankly, untidily in a really warm blanket. Hell, the banana looked exactly like the one she pulled from the bowl: slightly crooked stem from being pulled from a bunch, a black speck at the bottom, two at the top...it was one and the same as the one she fell asleep with.

She pulled her left hand up to her head, trying to cure the slight headache she had now. "How did-" Only to feel some material as she pulled her hand up, causing her to reel back further in greater shock, almost falling off the small boat.

It was a blanket. It was a red, cotton blanket. The same one from when she slept.

Now she was terrified. Was someone following her? Was someone causing her to have these weird dreams and place items around her to make her go insane? Was the government trying to further torture her?! Because if the latter was the case, this was the silliest way she could imagine. But hey, it was working.

Now that she wasn't wrapped in the blanket, it was actually a bit colder than it left off; a steady sea breeze blowing was sure to chill somebody. Besides, wasn't it early Spring?

So either someone is messing with her in the post ridiculous way possible, or it turns out that the dream she has is real, and she can bring objects from there to here. Damn, that sounds amazing. Now the question was could she follow up vice versa?

It'd been almost three days. Shouldn't she be at Luopio by now?

* * *

After _that_ day, where she kept rowing to speed up progress (how was Kuzan's ice still there?), only to find nothing, she crashed in tiredness. She'd eaten the banana for a budget dinner, throwing the peel into the ocean, which seems to attract a couple fish, which turned into a larger, carnivorous fish, which turned into a shark, which turned into more sharks fighting over the fish, which turned into a _fucking Sea King_. Now _that_ was something for her memory bank.

When she fell asleep, she covered herself in the blanket, as well as opting to bring the barrel into the Women's Quarters. Snowball's chance in hell, though.

When she woke up, the banana from before was gone, the bin still had the apple, and she was still covered in the blanket. But there wasn't a barrel. At that point, she was convinced; someone was trying to kill her from outside and was messing around with her mind.

And then Franky happened.

"Hey, sis!" He exclaimed, barging through the door without hesitation. "You up yet?"

"Yes." Robin replied, completely monotone. She didn't exactly trust them anymore, not after what she found.

"Hm?" Franky looked thrown off. "Since when were you a _super_ robot?" He asked.

"I'm not." Robin replied, completely monotone.

Franky frowned. "I ain't convinced." He concluded from his research. "So yeah, question," When Robin nodded, he continued. "You have any fucking clue as to _why_ we found a barrel in your room?"

Robin's face lit up for just a moment, though Franky didn't catch it. There _was_ a barrel? Did they take it somewhere?

"So yeah, earlier tonight, we found you asleep in your bed. Your body was spread all over the shop, like you were doing yoga or some shit like that. Your body was on top of the doona, but still under the blanket. The hell's up with that? Anyway! We come in here, and near the beauty salon, we find this barrel, like the one you find on tiny fishing boats. We have no idea how it got here, so we brought it out of here, rolled it into the kitchen, bust it open, and it's empty." Never mind. Franky answered her question without even asking.

Robin didn't show it, but she was really happy right now. There was still a chance! This place could be real! Maybe she was right? Maybe this _could_ be her haven. Maybe she shouldn't have been so quick to doubt her.

Robin put a hand to her head, acting like she didn't know. "No, sorry, I don't." She replied. "Why here anyway?"

Franky shrugged. "Beats me; I didn't put it here." He then gained back the same positive look she's seen him have since she got here. "Now get out of here, sis! We need to talk. Besides, it ain't healthy to be stuck in the same room, huh?"

Ah, right. She had to talk with them. She was slightly scared, admittedly. She wanted to trust them, she really did. But so far, it seemed too good to be true. A ship in the middle of nowhere, a variety of people, all kind to her...it seemed like something she'd beg for in exchange for her life.

She looked down. "Maybe later." She muttered.

Franky still smiled. "Sure." And then he left. Holy hell, that guy was loose.

Robin still had time to think for herself. For one, Franky was right; it was probably time they should talk. She'd been holding off from it for three nights now; a wee bit too long. She'd have to go to them, explain where she came from, who she was, and then watch as they proceed to throw her off deck and let her drown. Just _great_.

Then there was how Franky was also right: she needed to move around more. She's been numb from having to stay in a tiny boat the whole time, and if not for here, she'd be finding her legs falling off. That's never good.

Besides, more importantly, she made a promise. To _herself_ of all people.

* * *

_Robin was...slightly terrified right now._

_She'd seen black skies come night, and they'd be mostly fine. Some of them had no stars at all, like now. She'd also been on this boat since Kuzan had sent her off a few hours ago down a runway of icebergs. And one thing she's learned from reading a book on boating and fishing maintenance was how if it stopped rocking, you've either found land, hit a jagged object near the surface, or sunken and you're most likely dead._

_So when she woke up to find the ship perfectly flat, unmoving under a black sky, she'd figured she was dead anyways. Especially when the floor was just as barely visible as the sky._

_She kept walking for about a minute, trying to find some kind of life. She'd seen this kind of thing once; a world of nothingness, empty but yourself and one other thing; that very thing would have major significance the next day. And said night, she found a potato, and then got thrown potatoes at by every kid on Ohara because of course she did. It was a natural cycle at this point._

_Eventually, after searching for a good minute or two, only to find nothing, she decided to turn back to the boat. Wait, was the boat it? Would there be something to do with it tomorrow? What about another ship entirely? Was she about to be found?_

_She didn't bother to find out the answer as she plopped down onto one of the rows of seats and just sat there, face in her hands on her legs. Either nothing was going to happen tonight and this was going to get very dull very quick (though she'd appreciate that a _lot _more than what just happened), or the boat itself was going to mean something. Likely the former; she'd never been one for omens._

"_You know, you may be onto something there, Robin." A voice spoke behind her. It sounded _terrifyingly_ familiar._

"_Mother?!" Robin cried, quickly turning around. That voice. It _had_ to be her!_

_Only it wasn't. Instead, it was another woman with dark hair like hers, only it was at the length of her elbows. It also had a fringe at the front. She was wearing a dark lavender crop top with a skull surrounded by multiple hands, like a strange Jolly Roger. Also like the skull, the woman was wearing a white cowboy hat, a hibiscus sitting on the left side. Below, she had long, baggy maroon cargo pants, along with a pair of black wingtip shoes._

_And right now, she was sitting right behind her in the ship._

"_Hm?" The woman echoed, putting a finger to her chin. "Now that I think about it, you have a point."_

"_..." Robin didn't know what to say about that. "...About what?"_

_The woman's charming smile seemed to grow bigger. "That I sound like Mother did." She giggled. The then turned her head and gazed into her own thoughts. "I never gave it much thought, but from what I remember, I _do_ sound similar to Olivia. Huh."_

_Better than most, Robin knew how to put two and two together. But since when was the answer five?! "Wait...are you...me?" She asked carefully, making sure to fall back if she was inevitably wrong._

_The woman turned back to Robin and just stared at her. Her eyes were beautiful, but they peered right into her soul, to infinity and then some. This woman had seen shit. She just...stared at her._

"_Pft," After a good minute, the woman had to hold in a snort. Robin despised being judgemental after what she'd been through in recent events and her routinely 'being bullied for the day', but _that_ wasn't quite becoming of the woman. "Pfffhmhmhmhm," and there it was again. Wait. Was she...laughing?_

"_PFFHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Yes. Yes she was._

_Give or take thirty seven seconds of howling later, Robin tried to speak up. "Er," As I said, _tried_. "Why are you laughing?"_

_The woman seemed to calm down after hearing her. "Hehehe...sorry, I couldn't help myself." The woman had tears in her eyes. Man she laughed _hard_. Now, though, a healthy dose of context would be lovely. "I know that I've been smart since I was young, but I didn't expect myself to catch on to something so unorthodox in such a short period of time."_

_That answered Robin's question, her eyes wide. "So you _are_ me?" She asked, fully turning around from her seat on the boat._

"_Why yes," Older Robin replied. "Nico Robin. A pleasure." She held her hand out, expecting young Robin to shake it._

_What she didn't expect was for the latter to run up from her seat on the boat and straight up squeeze her._

"_Robin?" Older Robin tried getting her attention after about ten seconds of being hugged. "Are you alright?"_

_Robin popped her head up, barely able to see beyond her older self's breasts. If not for her daily dose of depression, she'd find it amusing. "Sorry," She apologised, blushing in embarrassment. "I just...really wanted to hug someone…" She'd just witnessed genocide right before her eyes, _this_ close to being within it too if not for Saul._

_When she felt not one pair of arms surround her, but _two_, she turned around to see exactly that; older Robin had four arms, likely due to having the same powers as her._

_When she looked up at her future self, she saw a smile. "That's alright," Older Robin laughed quietly. "I remember wanting to hug someone as well when I was cast into the world." She then looked beyond young Robin with a thousand-yard stare. "I'd rather you have what I could not and be content than let history repeat itself."_

_Young Robin's eyes widened at that. "Did...did your Ohara get destroyed, too?" She asked. If older Robin meant what she said, then…_

"_Yeah," Was the reply, confirming young Robin's fears. "Charred to cinders, nothing remaining, all over some stupid words on rocks." She heard a sigh from above her. "Some song and dance that was."_

_Okay, now young Robin just felt bad. The same as her? Damn, that sucks. Considering how she felt now…"I'm sorry…" She apologised._

_Older Robin giggled. "Come on, Robin, you have no need to apologise." She replied, trying to comfort her younger self. "You didn't do anything wrong, so you have no need to feel responsible for what happened to me. Or quite frankly, you."_

_Young Robin pouted from within the crop top. "I still feel bad…"_

_And they just remained like that, Robin in the arms of her future self in a hug that she really needed. Honestly? It was one of the first hugs since her mother left years ago. Even then, she'd never felt so loved before...and the fact that her future self sounded 1:1 like Olivia? It was kind of crazy, and will probably be more so in retrospect._

_After about a minute or two, the older woman spoke up._

"_Perhaps I should warn you now while I have the time?"_

_Warn her? About what? She hadn't heard about any calamities lately._

"_What?" Young Robin asked, concerned._

_Older Robin looked down to her. And from her expression, she didn't seem to expect that her past self had heard her. Considering that she was right under her chest, young Robin had no idea how she hadn't seen that coming._

_And then she giggled. Was now really the time for that?! "If my sense of time is still as good as people say it is, I think I have around two minutes."_

_Young Robin looked confused. "For what?"_

_Older Robin hoisted of her younger self onto the other seat of the boat. "You see, within that time, you're going to fall into another void," She replied. "One with an invisible ocean. And yes, due to having a Devil Fruit, you're not going to be able to move."_

"_..." Young Robin didn't know how to answer that. "Uh…"_

_She felt a hand on her shoulder from the older woman. "Now don't worry, you'll be fine," She quickly assured. "Anyway, you're going to fall into a void with an ocean, you won't be able to move, _but!_ You're going to be pulled up by three people onto a ship, making sure you don't drown and sink like an anchor into the very abyss that lies eternally beneath you."_

_Robin had no idea why her older self was so..._morbid_, but that was for later. "What three people? And why are you telling me this?!" She demanded._

_Suddenly, from beneath the two of them, light started to peer from under the boat, scaring Robin._

_Either her older self didn't notice or...was she anticipating this? Wait, was this what she meant by two minutes? Was that all the time she had?_

_As light started to pierce through everything around them, older Robin gave an answer. "So that you have a home; something I wish I could've had when I was your age."_

_Now young Robin was even more confused. "A...home?"_

_The ghost of not-so-christmas future nodded. "Mhm," She answered. "More than that, Robin. A _family_."_

_As more and more light surrounded them, young Robin shook her head in confusion. "What do you mean 'family'? What kind of home?! I don't understand any of this!"_

_When she felt a hand on her head, she stopped panicking and looked up, older Robin smiling at her. Although she seemed to have some light beams sticking out of her. "Don't worry~," She laughed. "You'll understand soon enough. Though I do have a request for you."_

_Young Robin tilted her head to the side in curiosity, not noticing how light was now also coming out of her. "What is it?"_

_Her future self's smile grew larger still. "_Trust them_."_

_Young Robin was conflicted by this request. "What?! But I-"_

"_Don't even know them? Don't know what they may do to you? Am worried because they may throw you overboard because they might think you're a demon?"_

_That shut her up._

"_As I said, just give them a chance," Older Robin asked. Not quite pleading, but still wanting the child to hear her out. "They're a bunch of zany goofballs, but I can tell you right now they'll care for you like one of their own. Just...give them a chance?" Light had taken up 84% of the room, let alone _them_._

_Robin was rather conflicted about this. Her older self wanted her to...give a chance to people she didn't even know? Not to insult her own intelligence (and she was fairly certain the woman before her may very well be the smartest person ever, much more than herself), but that was probably something incredibly stupid. But...what did she have to lose? Odds are, with the bullshit the government spits out, the world would want her head on a pike and her body in the ground anyways._

"_I…" The least she could do was hope. "I'll try…" I mean, that's all she really had left._

_Older Robin beamed. "I thank you from the bottom of my heart, Robin." She thanked. "I promise you, there's nobody in this world destined to be alone."_

_As the light started to cover everything around them, and a bunch of themselves, young Robin started to tear up. Those words hit close to home, and from her own mouth no less. And...could this be her break? Finally, a place she could call home?_

_She needed another hug, and as such lunged right back into her older self, crying her heart out into the latter's chest._

_All older Robin did was hug her back, patting her head. "I swear, you'll be home before you know it." Light now covered everything._

_All young Robin did was nod, holding the older woman as long as she could before she'd brace for the due fall._

* * *

She had promised her future self to at least give them a chance. And seeing as they offered that chance, she might as well take it.

With that in mind, she quickly got out of the bed and prepared herself in front of the mirror, making sure she knew what she was doing.

"Okay, Robin, you'll be alright…" She went on with this tactic for ten minutes, rehearsing lines, failing at them, building up emotion in a pressure container that was her soul...the usual.

* * *

"She ain't coming up, is she?" Franky asked his seniors.

Jinbe shook his head. "No clue. She seems hesitant on something, but I don't know what."

Brook had his hands enclosed in one another on the table. Perhaps it's because she doesn't trust us." When the other two looked at him, he continued. "Look at us; we're each incredible easy going, and accepted one another rather quickly." They nodded at this. Jinbe had heard Brook out and they got around in almost no time, and Franky had been the life of the party for all of his six years aboard here. "Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen with everyone. And as such, we need to have patience and accommodate their wishes, no matter what they may be." Brook sighed. "These things take time, and with her injuries she had when she first appeared, I feel that it may need to take a little more before she wishes to speak with us directly."

Franky nodded, though he seemed reluctant. "Fair enough," He agreed. "There's just one _super_ slight problem."

Brook sat up straight. "And what might that be, Franky?" He inquired.

Franky pointed to the door that lead downstairs. "She's right there."

The other two quickly turned around to see that, indeed, Robin was standing right there at the doorway, same battered dress as before, same injuries as before. She at least seemed calmer.

Robin tended up a bit now that attention was on her. She lowered her head, looking away. "Um…" She barely even whispered. "H-Hello." Was it fear of them, or was she shy?

Franky held up a peace sign. "Yo." He grinned.

As Brook nodded in response, Jinbe spoke up. "Somebody finally got out of bed," he laughed. "Was it that comfortable?"

Robin meekly nodded. "Yeah." She replied, a little louder than before.

Jinbe smiled to himself. "Maybe we should fix up the Men's Quarters if they're that nice. The cots are too small for me anyways."

Franky held out a fist. "Hear hear!"

Jinbe waved him off. "Not the time, Franky." He replied, not even looking at him. Franky pouted for his troubles.

"You…" Robin spoke up again. "Wanted to see me?"

Brook perked up a bit. "Ah yes, we have a lot to tell you!" He answered in a jolly voice. "Come, take a seat." He offered one of the chairs next to Franky at the table.

Robin seemed nervous at first, still not exactly assured about being near them for her own safety. Eventually, she slowly walked over, politely sitting to the right of Franky.

After she sat down, Brook clasped his hands together. "Now then, I'll just give you a simple explanation for now and give you full details later. A synopsis, if you will." As Robin nodded, he continued. "You see, as you may have guessed, this is all occurring within your dreams when you sleep at night. It's occurring with all of us, every night." He straightened himself up more. "This place is what we call the Dream Realm. We sail an endless ocean in an empty void of nothingness. Well, _almost_ nothing, I should say." Brook chuckled to himself. "To be specific, we sail aboard this ship. It's not just any ship, but the most majestic and well crafted ship in the world; the Thousand Sunny, ship of dreams!"

He paused for a bit for the slightly epic moment, also making sure Robin was on track with what he was saying. When she nodded, giving a simple "Mhm.", he pressed on.

"Every night, rather than simply having a dream, we each come aboard the Sunny, doing whatever we please through the night. Sometimes we relax on the lawn or play a board game, sometimes we look through the Library for history and other miscellaneous information," He saw that Robin perked up at that, as he'd hoped. "We also like to train and practise. I like to reprise my swordsmanship from when I was alive in case I get found from where I am, or to defend myself if they're bad people. Jinbe trains in a special martial arts style he uses, known as Fish-Man Karate. Franky doesn't really have a need to fight, so he tinkers with inventions in the workshop below deck. He's incredibly creative, I must say!"

Robin nodded at all this information, taking it all in. "Sounds nice." She commented.

"It truly is a blessing," Brook agreed. "Now then, I think we should introduce ourselves properly," He then took a step up from his seat at the end of the table. "I am Brook, formerly a human who sailed as a pirate with a crew filled with musicians. To think it's been 30 years since then…" He seemed a bit sad at that last comment, but pressed on. "I'm a swordsman, above average if I'm being honest. I ate a Devil Fruit, the Revive-Revive Fruit specifically. When I died after my crew was ambushed, my soul searched for my body for a whole year before it came across my bones, nothing but my afro still intact. As for hobbies, I train in swordsmanship every now and then, but like reading about various cultures and histories, doing puzzles, and finding and making various teas and coffees." He then took a bow before sitting down.

Jinbe stood up next. "I'm Jinbe, a whale shark Fish-Man from the Fish-Man District, a largely abandoned area from my home nation; the slurms, if you will. I am a user of Fish-Man Karate, a fighting style that revolves around the movement and flow of water, be it vapour in the air, or the ocean itself. I mostly train aboard the Sunny, though every now and then I enjoy giving history on Fish-Man Island and our race in general. I would be doing it for the sake of preventing misconceptions, but these two don't judge covers anyway," He gestured to Brook and Franky, who nodded. That was nice, not judging on background or word alone. It gave her a bit of hope. "I've also taken a habit of garden maintenance, helmsmanship, and Stratego. Even now, I have absolutely no clue how the latter came to be."

As Jinbe sat down, Franky now stood up. "Name's Franky! I'm a degenerate teenager who's a shipwright apprentice with a dude named Iceburg (I call him Ice-for-Brains), and my boss Tom, who's pretty much the dad I never got. I've always wanted to make a ship that can take down a Sea King, and have made a crapton of prototypes in hopes of pulling it off, which I named Battle Frankys," Robin snorted a bit at the sheer bullheadedness of the name alone. "I've made around sixteen of them by now, all of them failing. I swear to god, I _WILL_ make one that _super_ works! But anyway, around here, I mostly try to make inventions in my spare time, learn how to make my own cola and fail with flying colours, and...yeah, that's pretty much it." For ending on such a flat note, Franky's smile was pretty damn bright. Hell, he even went into this weird pose with his arms above his head. Sure was a prideful guy.

When he sat down, everyone turned to Robin. At the sudden shift of attention to her, she felt queasy. She wanted to leave, go back to that room, sleep in the bed. But if she didn, they would trust her just as much as she did them. And frankly, that was a _very_ bad thing to do when this was literally the only thing sailing these invisible waters.

When she did stand up, on the chair for good measure to make sure they saw her, she started.

"My name is Nico Robin. I was formerly a citizen and resident of Ohara, an island of archaeologists and researchers in the south of the West Blue. I…" She cleared her tears up a bit before continuing. "I say former because Ohara was destroyed."

Brook raised his hand. "By whom, I may ask?" He inquired.

Robin's face took a dive. "The government," She responded. "The World Government destroyed...no, not just...they destroyed _everything_. They burned the tree surrounding the whole island, they brushed cannonballs across the plains, they murdered _**everyone**_. Archaeologists, innocent citizens...nothing was left…"

The other three looked distraught. An entire island destroyed. Not even just murdering a single person, which was bad enough, but flat out _genocide_? That was fucked and a half.

Jinbe was now invested. "But why?" He asked, already saddened. "What reason would they have to wipe away an entire island?!"

"Poneglyphs," Robin responded. "An ancient writing of sorts. From what I remember my professor told me, they were large stones engraved with an ancient message. There are theorised to be hundreds around the whole world, but few could read them." She paused. "And they were all from Ohara…"

Brook seemed to put down the pieces given, and he wasn't happy. "So they wiped out your entire people because of some writing on stones?!" He demanded, seething.

Robin nodded. "Yes. Because of what was written, the government doesn't want anyone to read them. They w-want them hidden and...w-would kill to-to...k-keep them s-s-so…" She started crying. She couldn't help it. Because of what those damn stones read, her people's heads were wanted on a silver platter. And aside from herself, that's exactly what happened.

For the first time since Robin had started giving her story, Franky spoke up. "Hold on," He spoke. "I think I remember something about this whole thing."

His seniors turned to him. "What is it, Franky?" Brook asked.

"Hey, sis, you said the _super_ island was called Ohara, yeah?" He asked.

Robin nodded, wiping the tears of her face with some tissues Jinbe offered. "Y-yeah. It is." She whimpered.

Franky seemed a lot more saddened now. "Yeah, about that…" He trailed off, leaving a feeling of dread in Robin's gut. "In the newspapers the other day, they said something about 'Demons of Ohara' on the front cover." Everyone in the room was suddenly uneasy. And yet Franky went on. "If I remember reading it before Tom stole it back, it said that they were trying to _super_ destroy the world or some shit. No idea what that's about."

Robin hadn't felt worse since she got here. Already, the government had spread propaganda about her and her people, let alone blatant lies to save face, and they had already reached one of their ears. And now they knew. And now she'd get cast of board. And now-

"Hey, Robin," She quickly turned her head up to see Franky raising an eyebrow in her direction. "You got any idea what's up with that?" He asked. Strange; he hadn't evicted her yet.

Nonetheless, she was asked a question. "I...think I do," She replied. "I think Clover said that some of the Poneglyphs held directions to certain weapons. I don't know what, but he said that they could shake the balance of the world. I got really scared when he said that, so I ran out and didn't hear anything else he might have said."

Jinbe sighed heavily, turning attention to him. "Robin…" He spoke, the latter expecting the worst or to be called a liar. "Ohara doesn't care about finding these 'weapons', do they?"

Robin was shocked that he asked _that_ of all things. She had a chance to explain herself! "OF COURSE WE DON'T!" She all but screamed out. "We don't want to destroy the world or whatever! All we want to know is history! All I wanted to know is what happened in the world! A-and, and, we didn't even know it was that bad! Why would we blackmail with something we don't even know?! We just wanted to learn things about the past!" She cried even harder now, but she didn't stop talking either. "BUT NOBODY LISTENS! Nobody believes we want to learn about history! Everyone just wants to blame us for something we didn't even do! ALL THE WORLD WANTS TO DO IS BLAME THINGS THAT DON'T EXIST TO MAKE THEMSELVES FEEL BETTER! We just want to _learn_, but nobody wants to believe we're harmless! All they want is our blood spilt, our bodies spread, and our home burnt to cinders! All because we _wanted to learn!_ _**WHAT'S SO WRONG ABOUT DISCOVERING THE UNKNOWN?! WHY DOES EVERYBODY WANT US DEAD FOR SOMETHING SO MINISCULE?! WE DID NOTHING WRONG TO ANYBODY ABOUT ANYTHING!**_"

At that point, she finally snapped. She had fallen face first onto the table, crying her heart out. Even when there were no more tears left, she just kept weeping in sadness. She couldn't take it anymore. All that Professor Clover wanted to do was to learn about the world and its upbringings. All that the Ohara archaeologists wanted to learn was about the past and how it shaped the present.

_And they died for it_. All for the government being afraid of something that wasn't even going to happen.

As she was still whimpering to herself, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Instinctively she flinched, expecting the worst. When she looked up, eyes red and puffy with two wet trails down her face, she saw Franky smiling at her.

"Come on, Robin, you don't gotta cry!" He told her, grinning. "We believe you."

Robin was shocked. "W-Wha...?" She figured that after all that, they'd just call her a crybaby and to 'suck it up'.

"I mean, it sounds like something they'd do to maintain power, so I can't say I'm that surprised." Now Jinbe was listening and agreeing. She couldn't believe it.

"But still…" Brook trailed off. "To think that they'd go so far...and to descend so low, just to save face...how uncouth." It...it was a miracle. They'd listened to her. They'd heard her the whole way. And they were on _her_ side...how?!

"Robin," She quickly turned to Franky, who had his hands on his hips. "I should probably tell you this now; you're stuck here for the rest of your life. At night, that is." Robin nodded, understanding that, after the previous nights and the logic that broke like a twig, this would be the case. "And looking at you, your posture, your attitude, your _expectations_, thinking nobody's gonna hear you out," Robin would be lying if she said she wasn't afraid right now. Such a casual teenager, yet he read her like a book. "You're lonely, aren't you? An orphan or an outcast?" He asked.

Robin decided to give the most inclusive answer possible. "Yes," She replied. "Everyone hates me." The three seemed saddened by this. Her whole life, hated by everybody? So young, too… "I ate I think it's called a Devil Fruit, like Brook. The Flower-Flower Fruit. I can create limbs, like an arm." She then held out her right arm, and on each of the three appeared an arm on their own right arm. _Like a flower_. "They feared it because it wasn't normal. And even before the Devil Fruit, people still hated me. Throwing rocks, calling names, shoving into the ground, punching...the list goes on…" Her eyes were starting to well up again. "A-All but the archaeologists...they ca-alled me a demon. A _Demon Child_. Neighbours, the other children, my bitch of an Aunt-in-law...e-everyone...a mo-_monster_...a de...I…" She couldn't find the words, her emotions fogging her mind's thesaurus.

The fog cleared when Franky jumped onto the table, grabbed her shoulders and literally shook it away. "Well _fuck them_, dude." He said, a strong look of determination aboard. "We know you aren't a demon. You're a decent human being. You aren't trying to kill us with weapons you don't care about, you aren't going to curse us with your flower hands you yourself are scared of, and you are _definitely not a Demon Child_. Got that, sis?" The other two couldn't tell which was stronger; the serenity beginning to roll off of Robin in waves, or the truth in Franky's words. "And you know what? For as long as I can remember, we've been a family on this ship, the three of us!"

"Mhm." Brook confirmed, a fierce look on his bony face.

"He's right, you know." Jinbe followed suit.

"And if anything, you're one of us, Robin!"

Robin gasped in shock and awe at what Franky had said. "I...what?"...and a bit of confusion. Her? One of them?

"Sure!" Franky pressed on. "You're probably the kindest person I know! Hell, you're the most courteous I know, that's for sure." His seniors nodded. "If anything, if you need help in anyway, come to us! We'll _super _help you no sweat, sis! You need a hand? Just come to big bro Franky!" He held his arms out wide, opening himself up to gladly help her. She was one of them now, dammit! Why wouldn't he help out?!

Robin...Robin's heart was tied onto itself. And yet it _soared_. Hated for all her life, shooed away by almost everyone she's ever met, had a talent she never wanted that endangered her life and all others around her...for being dealt one of the worst hands in history, yet this group of misfits open their arms, held their hands out, picked her up and dusted her off to carry her into the sunset she's always yearned to see. A pipe dream for change...and she got it from possibly the kindest people in the world. And they kept helping her still…

Robin hadn't felt so happy in her life. So...wanted. So _appreciated_ to even _be there_.

A reason to _live_.

"**WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH**!" She cried, finally releasing the constrained emotion, proceeding to run straight into Franky's chest, hugging him as tightly as she possibly could. "B-BIG BRO-O-O!" She cried straight into Franky, refusing to let him go.

An actual family. A _real_ family. People who _cared_.

Franky, having reeled back from his own shock from suddenly being ran into, hugged Robin back. Normally, sack of emotion he was, he'd be crying too. But now wasn't the time for that.

"Don't you worry your little heart a thing, sis!" He assured the girl. "You'll be just fine here. We'll make sure you're always happy, and damn us if we fail along the way!"

Robin looked up at Franky, crying with a smile. "T-Thank you s-so m-much…" She turned to Jinbe and Brook. "A-All of you. Thank you!" She then went back to hugging Franky, crying starting to quench. She really needed that. She needed _this_.

Brook cleared his throat. "Well then, now that _that's_ out of the road, I'll go get the first aid kit to help heal your injuries, seeing as you'd sustained so many."

Jinbe nodded. "On that note, I'll get the bath running. You'll need to clean up after that whole experience, no?"

Robin nodded. "Y-Yeah. Thanks." She replied with gratitude.

Brook quickly turned to Jinbe. "Wait, she can't have baths like that, remember?" He called out.

Jinbe seemed to have caught himself, too. "Oh, right. Devil Fruit."

"Indeed. I remember when I first learned that."

"Didn't Yorki have to rescue you from the bathtub or something along those lines?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, fish."

"_Whale shark_, you uncultured swine."

Robin giggled from Franky's chest while the latter just bellowed without care. If this was how her family would be, her_ real_ family, then she'd love every second of it.

She now had a reason to live, and so long as these people stood, she wouldn't _stop_ living.


	9. Void Depot

DATE: JULY 22nd, 2019 (22/7/19)

* * *

Robin wanted to try an experiment.

She wanted to see if things could really be brought to and fro at will to the Dream Realm, much like the banana and blanket the other night. And to do that, she'd need approx. 2 days, 3 items, and possibly the flu.

Last night had been pretty simple after the breakdown that she _finally had people to call kin_. Somehow, it'd been a short night. Must've been pondering in her room longer than she thought. After she let go of Franky, Jinbe offered her to the bathroom, which was way too big for its own good. Seeing as she was a Devil Fruit User, Brook had requested she took a shower instead due to running water not hindering users compared to still masses of it, such as a bathtub, pool, lake, ocean etc. rendering them completely useless.

After cleaning herself for about 30 minutes thinking to herself (did voids like this get power bills?), she'd cleaned off before realising that all four of them forgot about clothes. When she shouted out to Franky for help, he searched the Women's Quarters to find some. Turns out there were a whole bunch of clothes just sitting on her bed. Like, _dozens_. When Franky informed her, Robin was mute as a mime. Hell, wrapping a towel around herself, Franky waltzed in with a stack of clothes almost 1.5x his height.

When he sorted them into separate rows by body part before leaving, Robin let herself choose between each of them before deciding on a set, consisting of a purple singlet with a vertical white stripe to the right side (her left), denim jeans, a pair of black joggers with white stars (imagine Persona 5 theme without the red), and a loose black beanie. After she'd left the bathroom, she'd been recommended a dark grey jacket by Jinbe after remembering that she'd been sailing in a boat aimlessly, making sure she'd warm up before going back upon waking up the next morning.

Since there was barely another hour before the next day, she explained some things Ohara had found (positively) and her own backstory as an archaeologist before the great purge, which were, admittedly, great memories. She also had told them of Saul, as well as what had happened to him helping her escape, which had enacted a minute of silence in his honour.

When she woke up the next day, she wasn't in her dress from when she ran, nor the standard clothes from last night, but rather a pair of pyjamas: a long sleeve cotton shirt, pink with a shirt pocket, as well as long matching pants. She also had a pair of white socks on. As she had hoped, the clothes moving to and fro were a success. Additionally, despite wearing it that night, she deliberately tried to _not_ bring the red blanket, and also bringing three red/green apples (pink lady), which also appeared next to her that morning.

During that day, she'd, to be put as bluntly as possible, felt like shit. As cold as the ocean was, wearing pyjamas all day, let alone long ones, just didn't sit well with her. As such, she concluded to bring the blanket and some shorter stuff for ease of movement. She ate two of the apples, and they were also the sweetest ever, as well as rather juicy, yet soft to the teeth. She liked it, though slightly preferred the green ones.

That afternoon, an hour before the evening struck, she finally landed on Luopio. Funny enough, the island seemed enough for renegades, and had barely any security to boot. If not for how standing in one spot barely a week after Ohara got smelted would be putting a target on her face for marines to kill her where she stood, she'd probably stay here for the rest of her life. Maybe as a barmaid?

Hopefully, she hadn't gotten a picture taken during the incident, as that could result in a bounty. Then she'd have nowhere to hide.

Regardless, she found a small property owned by a woman in her early 20s. Seemed kind enough, though she couldn't be too sure. She didn't bother asking for food, just a place to sleep. At first, she figured a young girl in her pyjamas asking for a place to sleep would sound weird, but the woman didn't seem to mind, warning her about a goat that sleeps near the corner of the barn offered. With that, she bundled herself against some hay on the second floor of the barn, going to sleep.

* * *

When she woke up in her bed, she had brought back the apple she hadn't eaten, as well as was still in her pyjamas which had a couple strands of hay, just as she'd hoped.

When she rushed out that evening, wearing a simple red t-shirt, black shorts and beige sandals (she wanted to save the other clothes for tomorrow), she was anticipating what she'd been offered that night from yesterday; a proper tour of the ship.

She was guided around the general parts of the ship and all functionalities so far. During most of it, Franky had gone full nerd explaining everything he knew and found out about the Thousand Sunny. Robin had actually listened to Franky carefully and intently, making sure to memorise everything he said for the sake of possible future reference.

When they started in the kitchen/dining room, she learned Brook was a fan of collecting various tea, which Robin in turn began to enjoy. She learned that he had even started to recently find flavours in the cupboard that he hadn't seen before, which he considered an oddity. She also discovered that, even with the grass outside being comfortable, the bench across from the table was actually an incredible thinking place.

Robin wasn't too much of a workout junkie for obvious reasons, so there wasn't all too much to find in the crow's nest. If only the ship itself could sail real waters, the view would truly be incredible.

Considering she had already seen both quarters before, she opted to skip those, and as such they moved to the stern of the ship, which had a few small dirt patches for growing things. It seemed the other three hadn't found any use as of now, so she may have to grow a flower bed here sometime. She chose one of the smaller ones, as the big one in the center could fit small bushes for growing foods. Not a good idea to waste such an opportunity.

They finally got to the bit she had anticipated the most: the Library. It was far better than she had expected; a little small for endless books, but enough so that she herself would be satisfied _and then some_. Hell, there were already a few hundred books in there!

"The hell?" Jinbe asked, confused.

Robin turned up to him. "What's wrong, Mr. Jinbe?" She wandered.

The Fish-Man scratched his head. "Where'd all these books come from?"

Now Robin was confused. "I...don't understand," She admitted. "Aren't there meant to be books here?"

Jinbe turned down to the Oharian. "There weren't here before," He replied. "There were about ten or twelve here at best. Now there's bloody _hundreds_!"

Brook raised a hand to his chin. "Not only that, but they're all different, ones I've never seen before." He commented.

Robin had a hard time keeping up. "Wait, wait, hold on," She cried. "You mean they just..._appeared_?" She was sceptical. Again. Like, this place as a whole was weird, but books appearing out of nowhere? And why when she joined?

"I mean, they _have_ always gone through a rotation of sorts." Brook admitted.

Robin looked up to the gentlecorps. "Eh?"

The latter peered down to Robin. "You see, every so often, around a few days or so, the books seem to vanish, only to be replaced by new ones. Some exceptions are certain cookbooks I use and specific history books, coincidentally involving each of us, such as Fish-Man Island for Jinbe or Water 7 for Franky."

That caught Robin's interest. The books in the library here were in a rotation? And they had history for the homes of the people on board? By god, it was like this ship was alive. And besides, looking back to the shelves, they were ¾ full of various books.

But there was one thing that didn't seem to make sense.

"Okay then," Robin tried to grasp the situation. "So from the moment I appeared on the Sunny, hundreds of books just _coincidentally_ appeared here? Is that what's happening?"

Franky stepped forward. "Sis, you like books and history and stuff, right?"

Robin nodded. "Mhm."

Franky clasped his hands together, smiling brightly. "Well, there you go then!" He exclaimed. "That's how they got here! The ship waits for the _super_ new guy, then accommodates 'em!"

Brook slowly nodded himself. "That seems like an acceptable theory." He agreed. "When I first arrived, there were approximately seven or so books here. Then twelve when Jinbe arrived, then twenty three when Franky arrived."

Jinbe shook his head, waving his hands in front of him. "Wait, wait wait wait wait, hold on," Jinbe interfered. "There were _not_ twenty three books when Franky got here."

Brook nodded. "Indeed," He agreed. "There were twenty _two_; I was using my tea book, remember?"

Jinbe deadpanned at the skeleton. "No. No, I do not."

Brook merely shrugged back.

Robin perked up from under them. "It doesn't really matter," She commented, before running to the shelves themselves. "There are lots of books, so I'm still happy!"

Franky gave a thumbs up. "Good for you, sis!" He praised. "Now then, where's my cola?"

Jinbe looked down to him. "You didn't." He answered, deadpanning.

The apprentice shipwright looked up at Jinbe, smirking. "Check the hole behind the axe and say that again."

As Jinbe's mind went to the bigger of the two crossed-over weapons in the Men's Quarters, his face darkened. "Son of a bitch…" He muttered. Franky had finally found the cola's hiding spot.

When Franky broke out into a run, Jinbe just sighed. There was no way Franky _wasn't_ getting a sip before he caught up. Might as well prepare for a hyper-Franky, at least.

* * *

As Robin woke up the next morning, now in the shorter outfit she had prepared prior (without the hoodie), as well as the red blanket, and a watermelon besides her, she dusted herself off, stretched out a bit (there's still a few hours between sleeping and waking both ways via the Dream Realm), and proceeded to get blinded by the sun being directly in her face. Oh, right, she forgot most of them had that weird hole at the top.

After she climbed down and greeted the goat, which it turns out she got along really well with, she headed towards the lady's house near the barn. She got to the door before knocking on it twice.

The lady then appeared beyond the now opened door. "Ah, hello young one!" She greeted, bearing a thick accent. The grin on her face fell a bit as she looked Robin up and down. "Where did the new attire come from?" She asked, suspicious.

Robin looked down to herself, noticing that it looked _far_ different than the pyjamas from last night. "If you're worried that I stole them, then there's no need: I didn't," She answered. "I had two pairs of clothes on my boat on the way here, along with the pyjamas from last night. After I greeted you, I ran to the boat to grab the few things I had before sleeping in the barn."

The woman seemed to buy it, nodding her head slowly. "Ah," She echoed. "That makes sense, I guess." She then put her hands to her hips. "So then, what did you need?"

Robin seemed a bit embarrassed to ask. Honestly, she didn't expect to get this far. "Well, since I don't know how long I may be on this island, I thought if I'm going to be residing on your property that I...might help you out…?" The ending of her inquiry seemed to radiate her unease of asking the lady.

All that _did_ happen was the woman's smile grow almost tenfold. "Of course, little miss!" She exclaimed, picking up Robin in a tight hug. "Help is always welcome around here!"

Robin was slightly embarrassed about her current position. She didn't expect the woman to just hug her, let alone the fact that she was this physically strong! It made sense since she owned a small farmland and all, but still…

"U-Uh…"Robin stuttered, still slightly shook. "T-Thank you, m-miss...um…"

The woman loosened her tight grip on Robin, realising she hadn't given her name. "Please, young miss, call me Soile." Ah, right. 'Glimmer'. That made _way_ too much sense.

As Soile put Robin down, the latter bowed forward a bit. "Robin," She answered. "Nico Robin. Thank you for this opportunity."

Soile crouched down, standing on the tips of her feet. "There's no need for the formalities, dear," She replied in a comforting voice, hand patting Robin's left shoulder. "You're a nice girl, so of course I'm glad to help!"

Robin blushed a little, turning her head down left a bit. "T-Thanks…" She replied, slightly giddy.

As Soile stood back up and started walking back into the house, she waved her hand toward where she was walking. "Come on then, Robin," She called out. "Let's get you everything you'll need!"

Robin was shook out of her little stuper, bringing her attention to the farm lady moving further into the house. "O-Oh, right. Sorry." She apologised before quickly running in after her.

* * *

As Robin grabbed the quarter of a watermelon on her side table that evening, she rushed out to tell the three guys about what she'd discovered. She was expecting to only eat about a quarter of it, 2⁄5ths if she was _really _parched. Soile wasn't kidding; farm work was kind of crazy, really taxing on the body. But hey, on the bright side, she'd learned quite a bit about her new friend, helped fix up the farm, found out the goat was named Heikki, along with how he was bullshit strong for his 2'6'' size, and that from how they went to a small market during the afternoon and nobody reacting harshly to herself, that the government hadn't gotten a picture of her yet, let alone a bounty.

Though considering she tripped over the stairs on the way up, slightly cutting her kneecap, she realised she needed to keep her hype in check, lest she die before being able to even tell anybody.

Since Soile had given Robin a farming outfit, specifically yellow suspenders, an old singlet, thick socks and brown leather boots, she was able to wear her casual wear tonight as well. She opted to keep the white sun hat, though, even if it _was_ a little too big for her little head.

"Guys! Guys! Guys!" She practically screamed, joy radiating off of her like a heatwave. When she got up there, she found the three of them playing some game involving a tower with rectangular blocks, crossed over within groups of three. She seemed to get there at a bad time, as Franky was almost done pulling one of them out.

As they turned over to her, Brook spoke up. "What's the matter, Robin?" He asked, concerned about the _incredibly_ audible screams.

Jinbe was just as concerned, though his was far more visible. "Did you get found out by somebody?" He cautiously inquired.

What confused them was how happy Robin was. "Anything _but_!" She beamed, putting their fears to rest. "Okay, so where do I begin?" She spoke to herself, smiling like crazy. Honestly, the attitude was so unlike her it was creeping them out a bit bar Franky, who was listening intently. "Alright, so I finally end up on Luopio, an island in the West Blue near Ohara. When I get there, I'm worried that the government may have taken a photo of me, but then I find this farm close to the shore, so I go to the front door and ask if I can use their barn to sleep-" Through the entire speil, Robin just kept on going, her joy not hitting the brakes even once, despite her mentioning farm work, which she assured would be good for her body in the long run.

After she stopped, heaving extremely heavily to get some air into her tiny lungs, the other three nodded in acceptance.

"I'll be blunt here, Robin, I'm just glad you're alright." Jinbe told her, glad she'd found some kind of peace and joy outside.

"Indeed," Brook followed. "I'm relieved to know you're not just floating in the middle of the ocean anymore."

Franky, also smiling, was still curious about everything else. "Anything else, sis?" He encouraged.

"Hm?" Robin turned her attention to him, words on the tip of her own tongue. "Oh, right!" She affirmed. "Okay, did you guys know you can take items from the real world to here and back out?"

That froze all of them for a good ten seconds, Robin looking expectantly with a grin.

"Que¿" They asked, tilting their heads to the side. Hell, there was even a question mark above each of them.

Robin frowned a bit. Maybe she jumped the gun too quickly. "Alright, I'll rephrase," She tried, clearing her throat. This was going to be a long-ass speech.

"So I tried something out over the past few days. When I first fell asleep after Jinbe gave me the fruit a few nights ago, I had a banana in my hand. When I woke up on my boat in the middle of nowhere, I had two things on board that I didn't; a red blanket and a banana. At first, I was shocked that either were there, as I had assumed that this place was a literal dream; a figment of my imagination.

"So that evening, I tried bringing back both the blanket as well as the barrel that I had on my ship. I woke up to find the blanket, but no barrel, which caused me to think I was going insane and someone had tried messing with my head to kill me. When I learned from Franky that you'd taken it out, I was reassured that It was very much possible.

"_Then_, when I went to sleep next, I opted to bring my pyjamas and three apples, which went according to plan, as well as I had learned that being in pyjamas all day _sucks_, of which I ate two of the apples before sleeping in the aforementioned barn with the other one in my hand, which was still in my hand when I woke up here.

"From there, I went to sleep with a watermelon I found in the cupboard, along with my attire of which I'm wearing now, waking up in the barn with both, before going through the day with Soile in some working clothes before changing back into this and falling asleep again with a quarter of a watermelon near me, waking up with both, thus having enough consistent results to confirm my suspicions that items are transferable into and out of the Dream Realm."

Robin really wished she had some form of photography right now, because the faces of Jinbe and Brook were damn _priceless_. For christ sake, Brook's jaw literally _fell off_ in sheer shock.

"So _that's_ where the barrel came from!" Franky pointed out, largely unaffected by the news.

Robin nodded her head. "Mhm."

_Now_ Franky was matching his seniors, realising the big picture. "Wait a fucking-"

The following scream from all three of them almost made Robin go deaf, though the fact that it happened was more than worth it to her.

"_**THAT'S A THING!?**_"

Franky had suddenly warped in front of Robin, shaking her back and forth. "You mean I've been able to show Tom and Ice-for-Brains my creations here this whole time?!"

Jinbe's webbed hand was to his forehead. "I've been able to show Fish-Man Island various items from beyond...and I never even knew?" He heaved out.

Brook seemed just as in awe. To think I've been able to bring things to my ship to keep me company for the longest time…" He sighed. "And yet I never found out, let alone capitalised off of it."

Franky let go of Robin, grin on deck. "Well, better late than never, eh?" He asked, rhetoricality as obvious as dog's balls on a canary.

Jinbe nodded. "I suppose," He agreed. "I can at least introduce everyone to what lies beyond Fish-Man Island now. A good history lesson can do them well."

Franky snuck up to Jinbe's side, jabbing the Fish-Man's rib with his elbow. "_And_ you can make good paper from the Thursday Markets, huh? _Huh_?" The teen tried, a sly grin fit to match.

His senior sighed. "Yes, yes. That too." For how annoyed and tired it sounded, the smile on Jinbe's face betrayed just about everything.

Brook went to Robin, standing a good distance before bowing to her, tall bastard he was. "Robin, I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for this marvelous discovery. This will greatly help every one of us, though I have no doubt you will benefit from it more than anyone."

Jinbe nodded. "He's right," He agreed. "Not even three days and you've discovered something incredible. Thank you." He then bowed as well.

Franky simply gave a thumbs up. "Good shit, sis!"

The young girl giggled to herself. "It's fine, really," She insisted. "I'm just as surprised as you guys are. Besides, if it helps everyone, it's alright!"

Brook started welling up tears from his eye sockets. "So kind, so humble, so _selfless_!" He cried, a handkerchief to clean off his skull.

Franky was a wet mess himself. "L-Like I s-said, she- *sob* sh-she's a bloody legend!" And as a mess, he was rubbing off his leaking face with his arm, albeit to no effect.

"WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU TWO CRYING?!" Jinbe roared, white eyes and shark teeth.

Robin just laughed really hard to the point where she too was crying. So hard, actually, the watermelon almost came back up. By the time she fell onto the ground with her hands on her stomach, the force from her landing toppled over the tower of blocks. Nobody seemed to notice, though.


	10. Bestil

DATE: JULY 25th, 2019 (25/7/19)

* * *

"I must admit, Robin, I'm impressed," Soile commented, plucking another lemon from the tree before putting it into the basket wrapped in her arm. "You've adjusted to life on the farm rather quickly!"

Wearing the same work attire, sunhat atop her head, Robin gave a small smile. "I'm not _that_ strong," She replied, almost self-loathing without context. "Besides, if anything, I need to thank you for taking me in. You've been so kind to me this whole time, and yet all I can do in exchange is offer labour services."

Soile shook Robin's shoulder lightly. "Oh, don't give me that, Nicky!" She giggled, using the pet name she gave the child. "You're more of a help around here than you realise. You make the farm feel_ alive_."

Robin deadpanned as she plucked a lemon into her own basket. "You only say that because, apparently, riding Heikki like a wild bull is the funniest thing you've seen in your life."

"ILOLOLOLOLO!" Soile burst out laughing. "You're _damn right_ it's the funniest thing I've seen in my life! Ilololololo!"

Robin sighed. "I fail to see how it's as humorous as you make it out to be." She plucked another lemon. Her basket was almost full again.

As Soile stopped her laughing, still riding of her budget adrenaline, "You must be on the other side of the fence to understand, Nicky." She shot back, still giggling.

Robin could only roll her eyes. Life hell she'd be able to be the one on the outside if she tried.

It had been around a week since Robin and her ragtag, international family had discovered that the Dream Realm made for the ultimate safe, in and out of a literal dream into physical, legitimate fabrication because that's just how it be. And funny enough, considering all four of their positions, it was barely being actually used at all.

Brook barely brought anything to his ship aside from a book every now and then, Jinbe was still reluctant on the whole black market life like Franky was trying him to do, and Franky himself hadn't even shown Tom or even Iceburg any of his inventions yet. Not even the older ones he finished ages ago. And if there was one thing they all knew, Franky was _not_ one to forget his work, no matter how minor or major it may be to him or someone else. Robin herself would be using it much more, but she barely brought a ship at all, and didn't want Soile to be suspicious about "where did all this shit come from?" or anything of the like. As such, she left everything but a piece of fruit every now and then.

She was currently helping Soile pluck some lemons from a couple of the trees out back. Turns out Soile grew a hell of a lot of fruit, possibly for the markets. There were around ten or so trees of each fruit, such as apples, lemons, even a few jackfruits. She also had some bushes and groves for things like watermelons, tangerines, mulberries, blueberries, strawberries...it just never stopped. And that wasn't even counting the crops full of vegetables on the east wing of the farm.

Robin had to admit, she was impressed.

Their current setup was rather simple: grab a small straw basket each (she wouldn't necessarily call Soile's basket 'small'), climb up the trees to pluck the fruit, _or_ using a fold-up ladder for the fruit dangling from the more fragile branches. This happened once a week due to the times that Soile planted each individual plant, with a month or two break afterwards. One week it was lemons, the next it was the apples. Then the mulberries. Then the strawberries. The watermelons were the exception, though. However, they ended up growing absolutely _massive_. Like, twelve feet long. Soile didn't get it either, but boy was she proud of it.

Robin jumped down from the tree with her basket in tow. Even being there for just a week, she had become much more able physically. Back on Ohara, that kind of height would probably break her leg. Franky, the rate of her growth in durability was inhuman, but she just decided to throw that out the window, as logic would also have to paragraph about Devil Fruits and some old weapons that could destroy literally everything.

To reiterate; farm life was crazy.

As she walked off to put the lemons into one of the wooden crates Soile had prepared for storage of the harvests, Robin paused. She'd grown incredibly close with Soile in such a short period of time, almost like the aunt she damn-well wanted. And yet the woman didn't even know who she was. What the world saw her people as.

She wanted to tell her incredibly badly. She wanted to be honest with the Luopian, be true to what she was. _Who_ she was. And yet, she had grown to care for the woman as much as vice versa was shown damn near within the hour. She didn't want to lose that. And as such, for the past week or two (she hadn't bothered counting), it was a war between bonding and morality.

As bad of a time as it was, Robin had decided to make that choice.

"Um...Soile?" Robin quietly called out, turning back around after putting the basket on a nearby rock.

"Yesh?" Soile called back, dangling from the tree with her own basket in her teeth. How did her jaw not fall off?!

Robin started walking back to the tree. "Can I tell you something...important?" She asked.

At the entrance of the barn, Heikki had just woken up, stretching.

"Sure." Soile replied, letting go and landing on the grass below the tree.

Heikki turned to the direction of the house, tilting his head after noticing a basket just sitting there.

When Robin finally approached the young woman before her, she started getting a little nervous. She had started it, but was already feeling reluctant on following through.

"Uh…" She trailed off. "It...i-it has to do with my...my old...o-old home." She eventually got it out of her system.

Soile nodded her head. "Mhm." She voiced in a 'go on…' kind of tone. God, the smile on her face made this hurt all the more.

Heikki trotted over to the basket, inspecting it curiously.

"I…" Robin muttered. "Do you know what...what Ohara is?" She had to be _really_ careful with this. One wrong move and she'd be on the sharp end of a pitchfork...wait, when did she start using farming metaphors?

Soile put a hand to her chin, gazing into the sky above. "Hmmm…" She hummed, thinking aloud. After about twenty seconds, she looked back down to Robin. "No, can't say that I do. Why?"

Heikki peered into the basket, seeing some yellow fruits inside.

Now for the bonding route, Robin could've just stopped there and said 'Nothing.', leaving it as days gone bye. But by all of where her heart was dragging her, she couldn't just leave it there.

"Does Luopio get newspapers?" Robin asked. Considering Franky mentioned the article when she told the guys everything, as well as him bringing it the day after she told them that the Dream Realm was the ultimate transit, she could try and show Soile herself. It was a very deep rabbit hole, but she'd be still digging if she didn't try to explain her backstory.

"Yes, we do." Soile nodded.

Okay. that was a good start. "Do you have one for approximately a week ago?"

Soile shrugged. "Maybe? I just keep some for swatting spiders and the like."

The goat picked up one with his teeth before biting into it, only for his face to almost completely invert from the sheer strength of the sour tinge.

Robin nodded. "That should do." She concluded. "Can we find one now?"

Before Soile could even answer a confused 'yes', Robin was already in the house. Soile followed suit, running past a wrinkly, angry and confused Heikki.

* * *

As Robin moved around everything in every room, she eventually got to the kitchen. Right on the windowsill above the sink, there was a rolled up newspaper, a couple rubber bands keeping it so. It gave Robin a grim hope seeing how new the paper looked, hell even _smelled_. Fresh paper had a weird smell, no?

"Yeah, that's the one." Robin turned around with the newspaper in hand to see Soile waiting at the arch between the kitchen and hallway.

Robin looked down at the rolled up headliner. "Let's see if it actually is." She muttered.

She slowly rolled the rubber bands on the top and middle of the paper, said paper slowly creaking the whole way. It was damn eerie for Robin, but not for the reason she'd expect it to be.

As she finally pulled off the second band with a bit of a tug, the paper finally gave way to gravity. Fortunately, Robin's grip prevented all the sheets from separating into a huge mess on the floor.

Robin felt an elbow on her head. "So what might I be looking for?" Soile asked, peering down at the paper.

It hurt Robin the moment she saw it, "_This..._", but as she suspected, and slightly, grimly hoped, this was the very same paper that Franky brought from Water 7.

What Soile saw was an island that enough fire to warm a continent for an entire year. It looked like the island itself was melting away like used wax.

"What the-?!" The Luopian cried, grabbing the paper from Robin's hands.

Now was about the time to explain, Robin thought. "_That_ was Ohara. It was burned down by the World Government. Ohara had scholars and archaeologists interested in the history of the world, including what had happened almost a millennia ago. The government, it turns out, wants nobody to learn this history, no matter the reason, so they annihilated every last Oharian. I only survived because of two people; a friend of mine who died in the attack, and a marine who offered me a chance to 'start over', despite being the one who killed my friend. _His_ friend." Robin didn't even know if Soile was paying any attention anymore, let alone at all, but she wasn't done yet. "After the marine made a path for me and gave me a boat, I sailed aimlessly for days, telling me to land on the next island and start life anew." She sadly smiled as she remembered the Dream Realm and its inhabitants. "Be it not for my conscious, I'd've gone insane by now and possibly died. Chances are some of them are still looking for me, because people are persistent like that."

Soile narrowed her eyes on a bit of the article. "So you want to know history, and the government calls you demons for it?" She asked.

Robin sighed. "Yes." You're either with them, against them, or dead from the latter.

"Sounds about right." Wait. What did she just say…? "Also, these 'weapons'. What?"

Robin cast that other thought away for now. "There are said to be three weapons in the world powerful enough to destroy everything, or so I heard from my old professor. The article may say we wish to destroy the world by rebuilding these weapons, but we didn't care about them at all. Why would we need weapons of destruction to learn history?"

Soile nodded her head slowly, lifting her head up from the newspaper. "So you escaped from damn _genocide_, got lead your way here, and want to try to make a better life?" She asked, tone bitter. "Is that what I'm getting from all of this?"

Robin gave a light, halfhearted nod. "Yeah…"

Of all things she expected Soile to do, positive and negative, she didn't expect her to shrug like it was a fly in a jungle.

"I don't see any problem." She explained, smiling. She then started walking out the back door onto the veranda.

Robin was...openly confused. "...huh?" Absolutely no quarrels at all? There had to be a catch.

Soile stopped walking back to the lemon tree, smacking her forehead. "Oh shit, I forgot to tell you, didn't I?"

As Robin followed her, she raised an eyebrow. "Tell me what?"

Soile shook her head. "That isn't important right now." She shot down. "Question about the whole genocide thing, who attacked?

Robin lowered her head. "They called it a Buster Call." She echoed. "Ten battleships, five Vice Admirals, and enough firepower to remove an island from the map." She tightened the grip on her balled-up fists, making them go white. "There was a man his subordinates called Spandine. He had a golden Transponder Snail. I believe that's what set the signal for the attack to start."

Soile nodded, letting off some "Hmmm..."s during her pondering. "Sounds like a douche." She concluded.

"Appropriate wording." Robin agreed.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"Open up! This is Spandine of the World Government!"

Robin turned as white as her late mother's hair, reaction as golden as Soile's own strands.

Soile put a hand to her hip. "I _would_ say 'Speak of the devil', but that has to be the shittiest timing I have ever seen."

Beside her, Robin nodded numbly.

Soile quickly lowered herself to Robin's height. "I take it they're here to see if you ended up on the island?" When Robin shrugged, though they both knew the answer was still likely yes, she pressed on. "Alright then, I want you to run into the top of the jackfruit tree second from the left. Nobody ever checks them for anything. Alright?"

Robin nodded slowly, processing what was being asked.

"Open up already!"

Soile pushed the Oharian away. "Alright, now go!" She ushered, Robin moving with the momentum given.

* * *

Spandine growled to himself. "Oh, how I _hate_ this damn island. Nothing but ignorant punks everywhere." He turned back to the two marines behind him. "Now then, I'll ask once more; what are we on Luopio to do?"

The two lifted their weapons, a rifle and sabre respectively, on their left shoulders with their matching hands at the hilts, saluting with their right arms. "To inspect for and apprehend the lost Oharian, Spandine sir!"

Spandine nodded, a dark grin slapped onto his ugly mug. "Exactly, gentlemen. We're here to check if that archaeologist's daughter ended up here or elsewhere. Considering 'The Meltdown' Was no more than two weeks since, she can't have gotten far, let alone with so few supplies she would have had."

The sabre marine raised his hand. "Er, Spandine, sir?"

Spandine raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

The marine seemed to quiver a bit. "S-She was reported to have escaped, and by boat. I…" He tensed up before swallowing really hard. "I thought, what if she...she got onto another boat?" He looked like he was about to shit himself. Physically powerless as he was, an angry Spandine was a terrifying Spandine.

Fortunately for the poor lad, Spandine seemed to agree. "You offer a decent theory, soldier." He replied. "However, a ship cannot sail endlessly. If she _did_ end up on another ship, it would likely be either a cruise liner, a fishing boat, or a pirate ship. And as everyone knows, all three will have to resupply on land eventually."

The rifle marine nodded. "That is a good point, Spandine, sir." He agreed.

Spandine smirked, ego inflated. He may act like it was for the good of the world (and it likely was), but he just wanted yet another promotion for fully eradicating the Oharian people. It was right there for the taking, and all he had to do was kill a young girl like the rest of her island. Easy!

Not even three seconds later, however, he frowned. "I just realised that we're still out here." He muttered. He then slammed a hand on the door, almost breaking it. "FOR FUCK'S SAKE, OPEN THIS DOOR!" He roared.

"Shut up and walk around back!" A female voice yelled, a thick accent accompanying it.

Spandine was flabbergasted. "LIKE HELL!" He yelled back to the voice. "I'm ordering you to come here and open this front door _now_!"

"And _I_ am ordering _you_ to shut your ugly mug and walk into the back of the farm!" The woman sounded as angry as Spandine was. "Are your legs made of paint or something?!"

_That_ broke Spandine's back. "**FINE!** HAVE IT YOUR WAY, _BITCH_!" He bellowed, at his wits end. He quickly tidied himself proper, despite fuming like crazy, and started walking towards the backyard., his young guards accompanying him.

Soile chuckled to herself. "Like I figured; an angry egotistic." She confirmed.

She then saw three men walking towards her, two officers of the Marines and a guy in a coat that looked so stuck up she was surprised he hadn't broken his back. The main guy's forehead seemed to have a few beads of sweat on it, and was incredibly red. Maybe from the rage of the 'conversation' earlier.

Soile raised an eyebrow, smirking. "I'll be damned," She spoke. "You _do_ have legs."

The red on the guy's forehead seemed to slowly spread across like a virus. "Just...please shut up." He growled before wiping his forehead and standing up straight. "As much as I'd love to have one, I didn't come to this third-rate island just to have a snark-off."

Soile hung her arms over her swan-neck hoe that rested on her shoulders. "Then what's someone from the World Government doing in Luopio of all places?"

From the tree, Robin seemed slightly confused by this. Did Luopio, as Franky would say, have beef with the government?

"I'll just get straight to the point; you disgust me already." Spandine snorted.

Soile rose an eyebrow. "Charming." She remarked.

Spandine cleared his throat. "No more than a fortnight prior, the government collapsed Ohara, an island of archaeologists planning world domination with the power of the ancient weapons, instruments of destruction that would bring about an apocalyptic future."

Soile rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure, 'ancient weapons'. What if my hoe here could shoot lasers? Does that make it an ancient weapon?"

Spandine was growing more and more aggravated with every passing word. "No," He growled. Was that froth in his mouth? "No it doesn't." He wiped his mouth and straightened back up. "_ANYWAY_, we're here because we're in pursuit of an escapee. A young girl with the family name Nico. We're searching the islands surrounding the late Ohara in order to track where she may have gone."

Soile leaned on the handle of her hoe, thinking to herself. She could be one hell of an actor if she wanted to be. "Nope," She replied after ten seconds. "Never heard of a Nico in my life. Where'd you even hear that name anyways?"

Spandine seemed ready to answer this. "The girl's late mother, Nico Olivia. Much like the rest of Ohara, Olivia was able to read Poneglyphs: a mysterious language on stones that show the locations of the ancient weapons, among many other travesties." Holy hell, this guy was dramatic. She just wanted to throw ฿1 at him and be done with it if it got him to stop. She was doing _far_ better at acting here as far as she was concerned.

In the jackfruit tree, Robin silently scoffed. They spread around propaganda that is nowhere close to the truth at all and royaly fuck you over if you disagree, let alone question! Dear god, it was a broken system.

Soile slowly nodded. "That's nice and all, but you are yet to explain to me exactly who 'Nico' is." She remarked.

Spandine was, admittedly, frustrated. Still nothing. "Very well. Let's try appearances and see if you remember a face." He then thought to himself. "Now then, what did the girl wear again?"

Soile giggled. "You sure _you_ remember a face?" She remarked.

Spandine was almost scarlet.

"Ah, yes." He suddenly said. 'The girl was reported to have escaped by boat with next to nothing. Nobody would want anything to do with a devil, so she should certainly be in the same clothing!' "From recollection, she was wearing a lavender dress, almost maroon."

Soile had never seen a lavender dress on Robin before. She'd have to ask about that later. For now, though, "No, sorry. Not a single bell." She put a hand to her chin. "Although, there is a girl in town who often wears dresses."

Spandine raised an eyebrow. "Does she happen to have short black hair?" He asked.

"Nope. Wavy, dusty blonde."

A sigh. "Dammit." Spandine had come to the conclusion that this was going to get him nowhere. "Alright, so not only are you a bitch, but you have absolutely no clue as to where we can find the Oharian?"

A shrug. "Frankly, I don't even know what you're trying to find this girl for."

"TO MAKE SURE SHE DOESN'T DESTROY THE DAMN WORLD AS WE KNOW IT!" Now being actually scarlet, Spandine had to hold back himself talking about a promotion, which admittedly took a bit of effort.

"_Oh yes_." Soile replied, sarcasm leaking on most certainly purpose. "Some little girl from fuck knows where is going to kill us all." She raised an eyebrow. "Do you even know if the kid's interested in genocide or not?"

Spandine smirked to himself. 'Nothing a little lie can't fix!' He thought. "Indeed," He answered in a solemn tone. "The Oharians are a cruel people, demanding nothing less than a 'New World Order', to annihilate all of humanity. And for what reason?!"

Soile sighed. "And again, how do we know this _'Nico' person_ is interested in the same thing?"

Spandine groaned. "You're deteriorating from the point here."

A small laugh erupted from Soile. "No, I'm not _deterring_ from the point; I'm asking for a specific point that you dance about like a fat drunk in a tutu. It seems more like your debating about a point that not even you get is deteriorating." And she kept on giggling to herself.

For once, due to the massive grammatical error, Spandine blushed. He was more of a rose red than a scarlet one now.

"N-Now listen here-"

"Look, I don't know where your little Nico is, and odds are, neither does the rest of the island. We're pretty damn close knit, you know. We know what happens in everyone's lives, and help whenever someone else needs it." She turned around to head back into her house, "Now get out of here, _you_ disgust _me_." Before slamming the door behind her.

"**AAAAARRRRRRGGGHHH!**" Spandine wasn't happy with the disrespect being thrown his way. Not. One. _Bit_. "WHATEVER! We search the farm anyway!" He ordered, walking towards the barn, whilst his two men searched the crops.

* * *

After about two _very_ hilarious hours of watching Spandine getting chased by Heikki throughout the farm particularly the barn, as well as the other two searching through everywhere _except_ for the jackfruit trees (And to think people didn't believe her when she said they were basically invisible), the government agent walked out of the barn with bruises to kingdom come. Clearly, he'd had enough.

"FUCK THIS!" He screamed. "We move to the main town!" After the order, the two currently in the middle of one of the lemon trees popped their heads out before climbing down and running towards their leader.

About three minutes after they left, Robin jumped out of the tree, landing carefully on the ground and quickly inspecting to check if her hat was damaged in any way. Fortunately, it was still in tact.

"Like I said, Nicky!" Soile exclaimed, walking out to the back veranda. "Nobody searches the jackfruit!"

Robin scratched her head. "I still don't get it," She confessed. "They checked the other two typed five times _each_, almost literally flipped over the crops, and Spandine ran a hole through the barn twice. Why didn't they try _any_ of the jackfruit?"

Soile shrugged. "Haven't a clue." They then walked back inside. The sky was already a golden orange.

As Soile went to prepare a steak for herself and Robin, she heard footsteps walking her way.

"Why?" She asked.

"Why what?" Soile asked as she turned on the fire under the element, placing a pan on top.

"Even after hearing what the government says about us, even after the propaganda against us and acting like it's God's law, why did you still defend me? Why did you protect me instead of giving me to them?" Robin didn't get it. Instead of listening to the bastards and being honest, she messed around with and mocked them. Why?!

All of a sudden, Soile's face turned flat and sour. "Jesus christ, Nicky, you have an awful lot of self-loathing to offer the world." She muttered, placing the two steaks in the pan.

"But I don't get it!" Robin cried. "Why defend an allocated criminal like that?! Why risk yourself for me?!" To her, the three guys were one thing, but someone else outside of the Dream Realm? Someone innocent defending her and risking being arrested themselves? _Openly mocking the Navy and its officers?!_ It made no sense!

Soile sighed. "Robin," crouched down to the girl, cooing her as she hugged her. "As far as I can see, between you and that egotistical prick, you are most certainly the better person."

That...made Robin feel a lot better. Hearing that she was the better person between herself and the man that ruined her life was something that was soothing to hear. To know that you aren't the bad guy because somebody else says so.

"You know," Soile continued. "There's something else I need to tell you."

This piqued Robin's interest. "Yes?"

Soile sighed, letting go of Robin and standing back up to tend to the food. "You know how everyone on Luopio is welcoming of anyone and everyone?" Robin nodded. "See, that's not true. If you're a bad person, like Spandine, nobody wants you here. Which is ironic, honestly."

Robin tilted her head to the side. "Why?" She asked, confused.

Soile giggled. "You didn't think this place was called Luopio for no reason, did you?"

This also confused Robin. "Huh?"

"You see, this is a town that's half full of, like the name of this place, renegades. Former criminals turning over the towel for the leaf underneath. Either for the benefit of someone else, or to get away from the life of a pirate, thief, etc." For what she explained, she seemed pretty happy about it.

Robin gasped. "What?!"

"Yep!" Soile giggled. "Do you want to know how it happened?"

Robin nodded.

"Alright then, now I'll be brief about it, but make sure you hear what you need to." As Robin nodded yet again, she continued. "Originally, this place was named Bestil, due to the Navy forces that made base. They had one major flaw, though: their captain was a tyrant, controlling the whole of Bestil under an iron fist of ego and power."

Robin knew that kind of feeling, but still trembled at the thought of it happening to others. "Then what happened?" She asked, curious as to how it changed.

The loomon Soile's face had a sort of fondness to it. "A pirate aptain came to Bestil to retire, along with a few of his crew after they had separated. The captain's name? Gaulseer Julius."

* * *

"_Captain!"_

_Julius turned to the voice of one of his late Cabin Boys. "I told you, Vesa, call me Julius. I'm retiring now." Julius was a well built man of a solid 6' 6" height, muscly body, a navy blue Captain's cape with white trimmings, and a red kerchief. If not for the general clothing of a white shirt and jeans beneath the cape, he had a classic storybook pirate's attire._

_The late teen fumbled about. "S-Sorry, Capta-I-I mean Julius, sir." Vesa got back to form. "Anyhow, sir, are you sure you wish to retire here? The name of this place is _Bestil_. And you want to retire here as a former _pirate_?" He asked, confused. "I don't get it."_

_Julius let off a small laugh. "Harpapapapa! You see, Vesa, I've always wanted to live in the West Blue." He explained to the young man. "I lived in the Grand Line growing up, so something a little more peaceful would be nice to settle down in."_

_The two suddenly turned as they heard footsteps, which ended up being from their portly, wise navigator. "Then we could've just gone to the East Blue, yes? 'Weakest sea' means 'least problems'?"_

_Julius laughed yet again. "Come now, Arnfried, at least let me be picky about which hemisphere."_

_Arnfried snorted. "Choosing beggar." He muttered, walking off as Julius and Vesa chuckled._

* * *

"_ON YOUR KNEES!"_

_As the voice boomed through the street, everyone did exactly that, lowering onto their knees and bowing._

_The figure walking between it all was a tall man in his approx. early 40s, almost 7 foot. If the chops on his face and muscle on his neck and arms didn't say anything, his giant broadsword most certainly did. He had a coat abroad his back, but unlike most, it didn't have the trademark _ _正義 _ _on it. Some would question it, but they were far too afraid of his brutality and might to do anything._

_He suddenly stopped before a young man, glaring down at him. "_Lower_." He ordered. "I want your very soul lying on the pavement."_

_Even though complying, the man seemed terrified. "T-T-This i-is as low a-as I ca-an go, s-sir." He stuttered._

_The captain growled, "Do not show such _weakness_ before me!" Before proceeding to crush the man's head into the pavement, almost flattening it. The whimpers of the man went ignored by the captain as the latter proceeded to pick him up and toss him half-heartedly into the fountain nearby. "Pathetic." He muttered under his breath._

_Everyone wanted to help the man, to stop him from possibly drowning and help heal his injuries. But once again, they stayed due to the fear of the Marine Captain's wrath._

"_C-Captain Enok, sir!" A voice from behind him shouted._

_Giving a half-glare for interrupting his thoughts, Enok turned to the Master Chief Petty Officer. "What?" He demanded._

_The officer got intimidated immensely under his captain's gaze. "T-There's a ship at the docks, sir. It looks incredibly similar to the Tauros, vessel of pirate _ _ **Evergreen** _ _ Julius."_

_Enok raised an eyebrow. "Julius?" He asked. He had heard that name once. Said to be a pirate in the Grand Line for a good decade or two. "Leave the ship for now." He then turned away, grinning viciously. "Let them come here; I'll show them their place myself." He turned back to the officer, gaze just as cold. "We head to the Digger's Bar, I'm parched. We shall wait there for this Julius man and shove him into the ground if he resists."_

_If the officer hadn't already shat his pants, he probably should have by now. "Y-Yes, captain." He saluted, arm looking like it wanted to be put down._

* * *

_As Julius and the four or so remain crewmembers that stayed with him left the ship, the citizens nearby gazed at them, slightly paralyzing in fear as they saw the tall man leading the pack._

"_Is that really __Evergreen__?"_

"_What's he doing all the way out here?"_

"_Is he planning to plunder the town?"_

"_Why are there so few of them?"_

"_What happens if Enok finds out they're here?"_

"_Dear god, they're done for."_

_Words, words, with a side of, who'd've guessed, _more words_. Gossip really had become a meta thing, hadn't it?_

_Seeing as he was the best suited for information in the crew, Julius turned to his spy, Ernest. "Who's this Enok they speak of?" He asked._

_Ernest, quiet as he was, got closer to his captain. "It seems he's the captain of the Marine base stationed on this island. I picked up fear and anguish in their tones when they spoke of him, if that adds anything."_

_Julius growled to himself. "It just might." He seethed. "Thank you, Ernest."_

_The spy sighed. "And thank _you_ for not calling me 'Ernie' for once." He responded._

_Julius chuckled. "You know you enjoy it." He teased, getting the lightest blush of embarrassment on Ernest's face he was looking for, the latter turning away. "Anyway, where's the second best bar they have here? As always, first is overpriced and run over."_

_As Ernest listened closely, his eyes widened at something else he caught wind of._

_He turned back to his captain. "What say two birds with a single stone?"_

* * *

"_H-How is it, m-m-mr Enok?" The barmaid asked the Marine captain, quivering in her dress in fear._

_Enok carefully placed down the glass of red wine onto his bench. He relaxed into his stool a bit. "A little strong on the back, but a good flowing flavour all throughout. A nice drink for banter, not so much for binging." If there was one thing that was admittedly well recognised of the tyrant, it was he knew how to critique a drink. One mess up, though, and you're the new bearskin rug. "A respectable glass." He finally concluded. "Now remove yourself."_

_At the order, glad she actually _lived_ that experience, she bowed gratefully. "T-Thank you, mr Enok!" She then ran back to the bar itself. She hadn't even made the drink! Shoot the messenger much?_

_Actually, everyone in the bar was sitting as far away as possible from Enok, scared that he;d murder them for so much as existing on 'his' own time. It was to the point that from outside, the bar looked empty._

_As Enok went to take another sip, the doors to the bar suddenly opened, five figures standing afront the light accompanying them._

"_So this is the Digger's Bar?" The front one asked, a thick accent in their wake._

_Enok placed his glass back onto his table. "Indeed," He confirmed. "Who wishes to know?"_

_The front figure stepped into the bar, the light behind him no longer confiding him. A tall man much like the Marine, but in a more..._criminal_ attire._

"_I am former pirate captain Gaulseer Julius. Some may know me as '__**Evergreen**__', if that helps." The now named man replied. He looked slightly angry about something. But what?_

"_So it is true!"_

"_He _did_ come to Bestil."_

"_But why? Everyone knows there's the Marine base here."_

_Enok stood up. "All of you, shut it." He demanded, not loud, but authorizing. Everyone complied, backing further still into the walls. "They have a point, though. What brings a pirate to the island of Bestil?"_

_Julius scratched the back of his head. "As I said, former. I planned to retire after such a grand career, and figured somewhere calm in the West Blue. I mean, the Grand Line _is_ rowdy like that."_

_Ignoring the crowd's mentions and gossiping about the Grand Line, Enok peered into the 'former' pirate's eyes. There was something about them...something...disturbed._

_Julius pointed a finger in the Marine's direction. "If what I hear is correct, you're the Marine captain of this island's base; the highest authority." He accused. "Enok, right?"_

_Enok nodded. "Indeed. My name gets passed around this island often." He informed the pirate._

_Julius raised an eyebrow. "By fear and tyrannism?" He retorted. Was it just me, or did his voice get slightly louder? Angrier?_

_Enok's eyes narrowed. "Now what would make you suspect that?" He asked, slightly on edge._

_Julius raised his arms. "Look around you. Do you not see the people quivering with fear whenever you do anything?!"_

_Enok narrowed his eyes further yet. "Are you questioning my role as a server of justice?" He accused, his cape flying behind him in the gust of wind flowing from the entrance of the bar._

_Julius' eye twitched. "Are you kidding me?! Justice?!" He demanded, furious. "What kind of justice is being a tyrant over the people you're meant to _protect_?!"_

_A snort escaped Enok as he also got angrier. "What would a _pirate_ know about justice?!" He questioned._

_The rest of Julius' men walked into the bar, standing beside their former captain._

"_That 'to protect and serve' does _not_ mean the citizens serve you in exchange for protection! Aren't the Marines meant to care for the people and watch over them to prevent them from dangers like me?!, Like _us_?!" Julius had reached his limit, beginning to walk over to the Marine. "The fact that a pirate knows more about justice than a member of the Navy, let alone a _Captain_, shows just how fucked over your system really _is_!"_

_Enok was now angrily walking towards Julius. "Don't you DARE to critique me on the system, you low-life scum!"_

"_Says the tyrant who uses innocent lives as dummy sacks!"_

"I'M_ THE TYRANT?!"_

"_YOU LIE TO THE SONG YOU SWORE TO SING! YOU BELIEVE THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU ARE DISPOSABLE! YOU ACT LIKE YOU'RE A _GOD_!"_

"**ENOUGH!**_" Enok drew his broadsword, Goetia, before full on charging. "Drop dead, pirate!"_

_Julius, before Goetia could make an impact, held out his left arm in a flex-esque pose, which was covered in a sort of plating armour all down his arm until his wrist, blocking the swords from striking the pirate._

_Enok continued to push Goetia into the arm plate, which Julius followed suit to push the Marine back. As the clash was breaking out, everyone in the bar had run out except for the four Marine soldiers that followed Enok, as well as the late Evergreen Pirates, the former aiming their weapons at Julius, and the latter aiming their weapons at the Marines, preventing them from interfering._

_From its standard silver and ruby, Goetia began turning a dark purple colour. Enok then leaped up above Julius._

"_**Art de L'ombre: Dark Dive!**__" Enok then descended at an extremely quick place, spinning like a wheel._

_When the blade struck Julius' arm guard, a purple, dark aura exploding from the impact, The force caused him to be pushed down and back, breaking some of the floorboards of the bar._

_As he groaned from the force whilst finding his footing, he managed to push hard enough to force his arm guard into Enok, causing the latter to leap back to prevent falling over._

_Enok wouldn't let him have it, however. Dashing back towards the pirate, he embedded his sword in shadows again before pulling it over his left shoulder. "_ _ **Art de L'ombre: Apocalyptica!** _ _" He then began spinning extremely quickly against Julius, Goetia striking against him each rotation. Seeing as how Enok was continuously changing his spinning, and as such Goetia's area of strike, Julius was in constant defence, making sure to not let a single hit get in._

_However, his arm was just too slow for a single strike, allowing Enok to deliver a powerful thrust kick right into Julius' abdomen, the force of the kick pushing Julius back, but not enough to push him down, or even into a wall._

'_He's extremely durable, it seems.' Enok thought to himself. 'No matter; I'll wear him out bit by bit until he's nothing but a butcher's field day!'_

'_I see,' Julius voiced in his head. 'He defeats opponents by onslaughting them and forcefully exploiting either an opening or a weak spot.' He shook himself off. 'Very well. Time to go into offence.'_

_With that, he pulled out his own weapon from the holster on his back: Vârf, a large, iron bludgeoning hammer with a long pike on the back, like a shitty workshop hammer_

_Poking the back end of Vârf into a table, he effortlessly tossed it into Enok's direction. The Marine simply cut the table away._

"_Really now?" He darkly chuckled. "Is that all you can do: throw furniture at me?"_

_Julius chuckled. "You'd be surprised." He then poked Vârf into a chair before throwing it toward Enok. Then another chair, then another table, then carefully picking up a glass with the pike before slamming it with the hammer to send glass shards, which Enok also blocked with little problem._

_Inwardly, Julius was smiling. 'It seems like he doesn't understand yet that I'm not attacking, but diverting. All I need to do is distract the fact that I'm approaching, and he'll break like a chicken leg.' He then picked up another chair and tossed it Enok's way._

"_Heh," Enok snorted. "Thank you for giving me a near effortless spar."_

_Julius gave a jolly smile in return, directly in front of Enok. "And thank _you_ for allowing me to get into point blank range. You're too kind."_

_Judging from the confused/surprised look, Enok really hadn't noticed Julius' plan. "Wha-?!"_

_And with that, a full on backhanded bludgeon from Vârf into Enok's chest, the strike so strong it sent the Marine into the back wall, breaking it in. Julius smiled to himself: the Marine had been caught off guard by not noticing the distance between them._

_As he pulled himself out, Enok was positively fuming. "You think you can defeat ME, _PIRATE?!_" He roared, pulling Goetia back out._

"_Probably yes." Was the reply._

_In a sudden burst of speed, Enok went straight for Julius' head, bringing back his sword for another spin._

_Julius quickly impaled the pike into another table. "Thank you." He muttered, holding it in front of him as a shield._

"_**Art de L'ombre: Apocalyptica!**__" Along with the makeshift shield of a table, Julius also made sure to block with his arm from behind just in case. As Enok began spinning, it was evident the table wasn't going to last forever, so Julius had another idea if it broke._

"_DIE, YOU RAT OF THE SEA!" Enok roared, hellbent on murdering the pirate before him._

_As it was a couple slices off of becoming malleable, Julius retreated the table a bit to the left, tightening his grip on Vârf. Hopefully, Enok's bloodlust wouldn't cause him to notice._

_And notice he didn't. Attempting a finishing blow, trying to take out Julius from behind, the now feral Marine sliced at full force through the table, completely shattering it. In Enok's favour, he managed to get a good cut down Julius' right arm, and the bleeding that Goetia caused was incredibly plentiful. And then he saw the scene before him._

_What laid before him was Vârf's pike glaring at the Marine, _menacingly_._

"_GET OVER HERE!" Julius shouted before ramming Vârf's pike right into Enok's right shoulder; his sword arm._

"_GRRAAAAAAAAAAAGGHHH!" The Marine cried out in pain, dropping Goetia onto the wooden floor below. The pain Enok felt was incredible. Some had tried to stab him in the past, but his body was so tough that they barely made a _cut_. Was this pirate really that strong?! "YOU BASTARD!" He cursed, suffering the pain of a spike embedded into his shoulder._

_As Enok tried to reach his left arm to pull out Vârf, Julius caught on, "Hell no, you don't!" pulling the hammer further left, lodging the pike rightwards, deeper into his chest, as well as twisting it counterclockwise to break any nearby nerves even further._

"_**AAAAAAAAAAARRRGGGHHH!**__" Enok was downright _howling_ in pain now. Had he really been put into disadvantage so easily?...no, he couldn't have! He was strong! He was damn INVINCIBLE!_

_So how the hell was this pirate putting him through such pain right now?!_

"_Now go to sleep!" Julius ordered, turning around. He began pulling all of his strength above him, trying to lift up the Marine. "__**Bangarang…**__" Slowly but surely, the body of the marine was going up with the might of Julius' strength._

_And with that, what goes up…_

"_**...Revolution!**__"_

_...must come down._

* * *

_Outside, the crowd was incredibly nervous, still taking in that a Grand Line pirate had come to the West Blue for retirement of all things, and had ended up challenging the force of nature that had kept them suffering for six damn years. _Everyone_ in town was there, be it citizens or other Marines stationed on Bestil._

_They didn't know what to expect as a result of the brawl. Was Enok going to wipe the floor with the pirate and throw him into the ocean? Or was there a chance that _ _Evergreen_ _ could turn the tables and be rid of that beast once and for all?_

_There was a fat chance, but all they could do was hope._

_Of course, when they heard someone yell something from inside, as well as a large amount of force both heard and _felt_ it was so strong, they suspected it may be over. As such, they walked to the front door, very slowly, everyone too scared to walk inside. Eventually, one brave young man went to check how badly Enok had beaten the pirate-_

"_Hey!"_

_Only for his crew to walk out smiling, leaving everyone confused._

_The young man, who was actually the one who got brutalised earlier today, walked up to Arnfried. "Um, what happened to Enok?" He asked. But that wasn't what he was worried about. "What about your captain?"_

"Former_ captain." Arnfried corrected. Julius was right; that _was_ annoying to correct. "You'll just have to wait and see."_

_After the four men stepped back, the four marines from inside rushed out, gleeful looks on their faces. Wait...the Marines also feared Enok...but didn't that mean-_

"_WE'RE FREE!"_

"_HUZZAH!"_

"_WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY!"_

"_THE TYRANT IS NO MORE!"_

_And like poetry, Julius finally walked out himself, dragging an unconscious and _very_ bleeding Enok outside, tossing him onto the concrete pathway._

_In an ironic twist, "Pathetic." Julius muttered._

_And then the whole of the now liberated Bestil erupted into joy and celebration, knowing that they had finally been freed._

* * *

"Wow…" Robin sighed. That was a hell of a tale to take in. A retiring pirate? A corrupt tyrant of a Marine captain? Full on _liberation_? It sounded incredible, but a bloody mess at the same time. "So what happened next?"

As she flipped the steaks, Soile put a finger to her chin, trying to remember the finer details. "Well, aside from happening around twenty two years ago, the town eventually were so traumatised by what had happened that they wanted the Marine base to go down." She giggled to herself. "In an incredible twist of fate, every last marine, chore boy to lieutenant, agreed wholeheartedly the moment they caught wind! From there, around a week after the base was broken down, it was renamed from Bestil to Luopio. Fits more thematically, if you ask me."

Robin put her thinking hat on. Or the sunhat anyway. Being too big enough to cover your eyes did that well. "So this place hasn't had actual law...for over twenty years?!"

Soile nodded, giggling. "Nope!"

This put Robin in a state of confusion. "Then what-"

"Honour among thieves."

Deadpan so flat you could cook an egg on it. "Come again?"

Soile put her free left hand to her hip, pointing at Robin with the tongs. "You heard me." She smiled with a raised eyebrow. "Like I said, around 50% of this island are renegades hoping to turn over a new leaf, and just about everyone is a descendant of times since old. I did mention we were close knit, no?"

Robin slowly nodded at that one. It was true: everyone on Luopio got along so well it was like a family by all but blood. Frankly, it reminded her of the guys easily, but knowing this still happened for other people outside of dreams was still heartwarming. Close-knit kin were awesome like that.

Another thought entered Robin's head. "So how did you arrive here?" She asked. Now that the farmer had mentioned the origin details about a good majority of the island, she was curious.

Soile looked a little shocked for a moment. Ten seconds later, she was giggling like mad. "I guess I didn't tell you _my_ name either, did I?" She rhetorically asked, scratching the back of her head. "Talk about double standards."

Robin, again, tilted her head to the side. "Hm?" Damn tradition at this point.

Soile put down the tongs onto the bench, straightening up and puffing out her chest in pride, beating the middle of it with her right arm.

"My name is Gaulseer Soile!"

Robin's exclamation of shock managed to scare off every last bird on Luopio.

"_**HUH!?**_"


	11. To Free, or Not to Free?

DATE: AUGUST 2nd, 2019 (2/8/19)

* * *

Jinbe slowly nodded, starting to get Robin's drift. "So, to reiterate, Luopio is an island almost half-full of former criminals starting a new life, of which came to be due to a dreadfully corrupt Marine captain twenty years ago."

Robin nodded. "Yeah."

Franky rose a glass of cola from his seat on the grass lawn, smirking. "_Super_ Crazy shit, I gotta say!"

"And to think," Brook continued. "The person that liberated Bestil was not only a retiring pirate, but the father of the very lady who's given you shelter."

Jinbe and Franky turned to one another. "I still think that's way too much of a coincidence." Jinbe remarked, Franky nodding sagely in agreement.

Robin bounded up and down in her charcoal t-shirt, obviously really happy right now. "I'm just really happy to meet people that really care! That don't judge by covers!"

All three of the men gave twenty thousand yard stares. "What."

It took all but three seconds for Robin to realise the quicksand she just openly swan dove into. "U-Um...I, w-well…" Robin's face was as red as the sunhat she brought in tonight. "I mean, that's not what I _tried_ to imply, I just wanted-"

Franky noogied the girl, bringing her into a headlock before she could finish. "_We know_, sis." He said with a smirk.

Unknown to the teen, he was rubbing the girl's head a wee bit too hard. "Okay, okay, just stop!" She cried, laughing a bit.

When she did get out, soothing her head a little bit, Brook looked like he was going to say something, but held out in it.

Jinbe caught him, though. Again. "Yes?" He asked, trying to get the skeleton's attention.

The aforementioned Rumbar Pirate turned to the Fish-Man. "You'd think hearing criticism about it being half-populated with former criminals would be hypocritical from a deceased pirate, yes?"

Jinbe got the picture, nodding. "Then I agree it was good you caught your tongue running."

Back to Franky, he was smiling even wider now for the sister he never got. "So basically, you got a place to call home for now?" He asked, hopeful.

Robin bounded on the tips of her feet. "Yep!" She exclaimed. "Everyone there is so kind, and Soile understands what happened, _and_ I didn't expect life on a farm to be so nice!" She quickly ran into Franky, hugging him tightly. "I'm so happy this happened to me!"

Franky, still sitting, laughed out loud. "HAHAHAHAHA! You sound _super_ chuffed about it, huh?!" He asked, hugging her back.

Brook sighed. "Let us only hope for your sake that it stays like this." He prayed.

Determined smile on her face, Robin nodded. She wouldn't lose this. She wouldn't lose Luopio if it killed her.

* * *

**6 Years Later**

* * *

"Hey! Robin!"

The fourteen-year-old turned around from the voice. She hadn't expected him to notice her deliver the bananas so quickly.

"Thanks for the bananas, mate!"

Robin only smiled, waving. "No problem, mr Donald. You asked for them, I just delivered as fast as I could."

The old man waved back, walking back inside. "You ripper!" He praised, closing the door behind him.

Feeling giddy from the appreciation, Robin ran back home, having finished the requests the island had asked for.

Since landing here, Robin had gotten to know absolutely everyone over the years. And I mean _everyone_. Like, hundreds, almost a thousand residents of Luopio. Even the quiet antisocials who wanted a place to call home and nothing more. She knew them all by name, their favourite food, their interests, and for those that liked talking, their history. Robin had met a few that were truly cruel in their past, but were trying to be modest here. Robin just hoped that those people stopped for good. And give or take a couple just generally cranky people, they all liked her. It was funny; one moment she was the despised outcast on her island of birth, then, by an island with heavy criminal record, was liked by almost everyone there. The world was weird as hell.

From living on Soile's farm, since renamed the Gaulseer Ranch, Robin had gotten much better physically, in terms of both strength and durability, mostly from all the labour that happened there. She was no deadlifter, but she was most certainly better than the girl from before who'd snap like a twig.

She'd also become a fair bit more adventurous from the whole experience, often wandering into the small forest out in the back of the island. It was mostly abandoned, though some certain stones and wood seemed to hint this part once _tried_ to contain civilisation, but failed in what was likely epic fashion. She also seemed to mingle well with the animals, too; probably from the experience back home. She even had tea every now and then with a bear she named Rufus.

Yep, Luopio was the second best thing to ever happen to her.

* * *

"Hey, Elmo!" Soile shouted out, pulling out an eggplant. "Could you give me a hand here?"

Currently trying to set up some hay for Heikki, the large teen made haste. "Yes, mam!" He shouted, dropping the hay, which by the stupidest coincidence managed to land perfectly where Heikki wanted to sleep and how.

Oh shit, I forgot to talk about that.

Additionally, along with getting various other crops and animals compared to when Robin arrived (where she's only ran the place for 14 months), Soile had actually hired some extra hands on the farm, specifically a young man named Elmo. Aged around seventeen, he was almost as tall as the average man on the island, which was already rather tall. He had rather flat, pink hair with a small tuft at the front, like a messy fringe. He had a pair of working suspenders on, much like Soile and Robin, though his were more of a golden colour, like Robin's old one (she used a purple one now), as well as long, baggy white pants. Somehow, though, dirt and stains seemed to come off perfectly fine whenever he cleaned them. He also had the standard leather steel-capped boots used for working here.

Robin jumped over the fence, quickly running to Soile to inform that she'd finished up, accidentally running into Elmo on the way.

Feeling a small bump from beside him, Elmo saw Robin on the ground, knocked down. She probably ran into him again.

He reached a hand out. "Very sorry 'bout that, Robin." He apologised. "I must've gotten in the road there.

As Robin reached to grab the hand, she waved the other in front of her. "Oh no, it's fine. I was charging thoughtlessly anyways."

After pulling her up with damn superhuman strength, Elmo rubbed his chin in thought. "Always with the big and smart words, huh?" He asked, still smiling.

Robin scratched the back of her head. "'Thoughtlessly' isn't _that_ complex, Elmo." She giggled.

Having heard the commotion, Soile turned around. "Ah, Nicky, you're back!" She exclaimed, happy to see what was basically her niece back in one piece. "Ran into Elmo again?"

Robin sighed. "Yes, I did." Soile had enjoyed teasing Robin like that bit by bit.

Elmo turned back down to Robin. "Ah, Robin, want to help, too?"

Robin smiled. 'Still as jolly as ever.' She thought, having known him for about two years now. Besides that, she looked past him to see Soile waving, holding an eggplant. Damn, was it really that time already?

She looked back up at Elmo. "Sure, I'd be glad." She answered, running over to Soile to help start plucking.

Now, seeing how well Elmo fit in, you'd think 'why doesn't Soile also take him in like Robin?' Well, there are two answers to that.

1\. Unlike Robin, an orphan, Elmo actually has a family.

2\. Soile's response whenever she gets asked being "I'm a farmer, not a foster mother."

* * *

Robin quietly snuck over to the Men's Quarters, eggplant in hand. Here was the plan: hold Franky's nose, wait for him to snort and gasp for air from his mouth and lungs. From there, shove in the eggplant. He didn't like the taste of a singular eggplant that much, so it fit well. Franky was an adult now, so he had to manage the responsibilities of getting absolutely pranked.

When she quietly opened the door, she expected to see Franky sleeping like a baby, not to be tackled down onto the floor by a blue streak.

Franky smirked, grabbing the eggplant out of Robin's hand. "Not today, you little devil!" He proclaimed, proud he finally got her red handed.

Robin pouted. "Dammit." She hadn't considered the possibility of Franky waking up in advance. She even made her patterns irregular, too!

"Yohohohoho." You gotta be fucking kidding. "Finally caught in the act, were you?"

Pouting even harder, Robin looked up to Brook. "Yes…"

When they got to the kitchen, Franky went to grab a sub he saved from the other night, Brook went to prepare some tea, as well as some Eggs Benedict, and Robin went to help out Brook with the latter.

After taking a couple bites from the chicken and jalapeño sandwich, Franky noticed something. "Hey, you guys."

Robin walked over to Franky, carrying over some spicy mandarin tea from a set of bags Jinbe managed to snag at the Thursday Markets that Brook wanted to try out. Apparently, they were from Secon Island in the New World, so that in itself made it hard to get.

"What is it?" She asked him, placing four cups down onto the table. Franky had asked if he might me interested in certain teas, so they started preparing some for him. So far, he only liked a rosemary one from the Cadeia Archipelago in the North Blue.

Taking another bite, he looked around the dining room. "You guys seen Jinbe?" He asked.

Robin shook her head, suddenly noticing why she and Brook prepared for. "No, I haven't," she replied. "I woke up around the same time you did."

The two turned to Brook, who somehow knew they were focusing their attention to him. The other two knew he knew as well. "I'm afraid I'm not sure either. I haven't seen him since the night before."

Franky had by now swallowed the piece he ate, placing the rest on the table. "I think we gotta look for him," He offered. "Something might be _super_ wrong and we don't even know."

Robin nodded. "That's a good point," She agreed. "We should look."

As such, Robin quickly recollected the cups and placed them under the heat lamp on the bench, with the three of them going on a quest to find their local Fish-Man.

...which ended in about six seconds.

It turns out Jinbe was standing on the Sunny's proud lion figurehead, staring out into a pitch-black horizon. He was still wearing his uniform as a soldier of the Neptune Army since he joined a year or two prior, though it seemed dirty and a bit rugged. Long day, probably. From the back, they couldn't tell the expression he had, or what he was thinking. Or most importantly, why the hell he was just standing there.

Not wanting to waste any time, Robin and Franky darted down the stairs, Brook calmly walking after them.

'Hm…' Jinbe thought to himself. 'How do I tell them?..._do_ I tell them?' After the decision he made, he had to be careful on what the response would be if he risked it. They all cared for one another dearly, so there'd obviously be turmoil. But how bad it would be was the question.

Oh wait. He needed their help for some steps in the plan. Never mind, it was just the waiting game now.

"Jinbe!" "Yo, Jinbe!" When he heard that, though, he stopped his thoughts to turn around and be greeted by Robin and Franky running toward him. He looked beyond them and saw Brook also coming by.

Better out than in, I suppose.

"Yes?" He asked them. Did they need something?

Franky stepped forward. "We were _super_ wondering where you dipped, so we came looking." He started laughing. "Though we didn't even need ten seconds!"

Robin stepped with Franky. "What are you doing on the lion like that?" She wondered.

"I had a talk," Jinbe replied. "Something important."

"What happened?" Robin asked him.

Jinbe sighed, turning back to the 'horizon'. "Tiger returned to us earlier today."

Franky immediately was hyped. "Brother Ti's back?!" He asked. "Holy shit, how long has it been?!"

"I believe it's been over six years now," The two youth turned around to see Brook approaching the group. "Even longer so than Robin joining us."

Said Oha-no, _Luopian_ nodded. "I've been meaning to ask in full for a while now, who exactly _is_ Tiger?"

Jinbe jumped down from the figurehead onto the deck. The Sunny rocked the tiniest bit, but nothing was said. "Fisher Tiger is a Sea Bream Fish-Man from the same place I'm from. As from the titles given to him, he's like an elder brother to all of us in the Fish-Man district; our natural leader." He turned to their local inventor. "Franky here calls him Brother Ti as well from what I assume is massive respect, or maybe he's just fanboying over nothing again."

At first, Franky glowed with joy, though that turned to annoyance and offence the more Jinbe talked about him admiring Tiger. "OI!" He yelled, shark teeth aboard.

Jinbe cleared his throat. "Nonetheless, Tiger was the one each and every one of us looked up to, and is the strongest of our clan bar none. Some claim I'm close, which I shrug off or deny, but I digress."

Robin nodded, taking in all the information handed out in the brochure. "So where did he go?" Was the next question.

Jinbe sighed again, looking down to the grass. "At first, nobody knew. He said he was going out of Fish-Man island again for a couple weeks to find some supplies and take in some sights, or so he claimed." Jinbe's eyes narrowed progressively tighter, slowly and slowly. "Then weeks turned into months, and then months into _years_."

"And so he came back?" When Jinbe nodded, Robin smiled. "Then isn't that a good thing?"

Jinbe nodded again. "For the most part, yes."

Franky raised an eyebrow. "'For the most part'?" He repeated. "The fuck?"

"His return was welcomed with open arms, everyone called by name and greeted, a celebration enacting the moment everyone had come by." Jinbe smiled, recalling the events from that day. "Afterwards, though, Ti wanted to talk with me in private."

Robin's face held worry like an open/close sign on a Thursday. "Did something happen to him?" she asked, concerned.

Jinbe felt it there. 'Damn right something happened.'

The grunt that escaped was caught red handed, though. "Alright, bro, spit it out." Franky demanded.

Jinbe sighed like it was his catchphrase, sitting on the comfortable grass beneath him. "Do you know about slavery and how it works?"

That question dropped every single mood on the ship.

As Robin dipped her head, showing condolences and sympathy, Franky nodded slowly. "Yeah…?" He asked, worried where this was getting at.

"To be forced against your will as a _tool_ for another, whom more often than not is an incredibly selfish bastard…" Jinbe growled to himself. "Do you know who the Celestial Dragons are?"

Franky shrugged. "I mean I've _heard_ of them, so...maybe?"

Jinbe expected that answer. "Said to be descendants of the first nineteen kings, they are regarded as the highest ranking class in the world."

"Jinbe," He turned to Robin. "What are the chances that they abuse their privelages to get whatever the hell they want and anybody who even thinks about questioning never sees the light of day?"

Another sigh. "That's _exactly_ what it is." The morbid wasn't even an exaggeration. From the tales he was told by Ti, that was pretty much what happened when something didn't go their way.

Robin growled. And that wasn't something she did often. "Bastards." Especially since Ohara, she had learned life is precious and not to be abused, let alone someone else's for your own personal gain in the most heart-wrenching way possible.

"_Super_ bastards." Franky corrected, also seeming just as pissed.

Behind them, Brook also had a disgusted look.

Robin had a quick thought. "Wait, what does this have to do with Fisher Tiger?" She asked.

Jinbe lowered his head. "When he returned, he wanted to talk to me about something. So when we sat down, he asked where I thought he went. I didn't know, so I said just that. He only planned to look around the end of the fifth path of the Grand Line, it seems. A day after he arrived, he...he…" He started quivering a bit now.

Franky caught the thought in a white-knuckled fist. "W-Wait, don't tell be Ti-"

"He was."

He stood back, eyes wide and shaking. "Oh shit...Ti…"

Jinbe continued. "No more than the day he arrived, a large, fancy ship arrived on the docks. It was for a Celestial Dragon, who had arrived for some select bread that they liked." Jinbe cringed at how petty the reason was for all of this happening. "The moment they saw Tiger, they..."

"Captured him on the spot." Franky figured it out.

"Indeed." Jinbe confirmed. "They saw Tiger, claiming they wanted to add him to a 'collection'." Everybody cringed there, a chill crawling down their spines begging that they wanted out. "So the man sent, I believe four men, chasing after Tiger. His body was tough, but they ambushed him and shot him through the chest. When he tried to recall how many, he just started shaking."

Franky was on the verge of tears; the Fish-Man he looked up to so was being abused by some rich prick, and taken as a _slave_.

Robin was faring no better either. She couldn't move even if she tried, and even then she'd just break down like her brother had.

And yet the whale shark _still_ wasn't done. They took him to a place that stands on top of the Red Line above Fish-Man Island; Mariejois, the holy land in all of it's damned glory." The meaning behind his words was best interpreted by his fingers digging into the grass. "For six years, he was taken in, branded with a burning dragon's hoof, and was dragged through an infinite hell of servitude…" His voice started to break. "Just talking about it makes me want to die…"

As he felt a small force at his side, he looked to see that Robin had started hugging him, crying like Franky had been. She was holding tight, and it felt like not even a crowbar would pry her from his side. Not that he'd try, as she needed comforting right now; this was a dark tale.

"I'm...I'm sorry…" That was what he thought she said, so he just decided to go with it.

He tried to put on a brave face for her. "Don't be," He encouraged, scrubbing her head. "You didn't know, so the blame is not on your head."

Robin nodded slowly before stepping back with the other two.

Franky put a hand to his chin. "I'm willing to bet those _super_ pricks didn;t just release him." He reasoned. "How'd he escape?"

Jinbe lowered his head. "I don't want to talk about it," He pleaded. "Too graphic."

Franky's eyes widened. "I said nothing."

Jinbe continued. "It wasn't his return that shocked me the most, however. It's what he said his next move was."

Brook shot the bullet. "Which was?"

Jinbe looked up, a fierce, dead look in his eyes. "He's going back."

Franky was loud and confused. "BUT WHY?!" He roared. "He barely got out of there, and from what it sounds like, getting out, _period_, is supposed to be impossible. Why would he go back there?!"

And the grand plan blows through the wind. "He wants to break everyone out."

Franky widened his eyes. "Does he want to break out all the Mer-guys?" He figured seeing his distrust to humans, likely more so from _slavery_ to the of all things, he'd just want to break out the Fish-Men, mermaids, mermen, etc.

Jinbe gave a dark chuckle. "You fail to understand. I mean _everyone_."

Brook wasn't as shocked as the other two, but he was surprised. "He wants to clean out Mariejois?!" He asked, perplexed.

A nod from the Fish-Man. "Indeed," He replied. "And I agreed to let him go nuts on a single condition."

Franky rose an eyebrow. "And what exactly was that?"

Jinbe chuckled. "Well,"

* * *

"_It...It was hell…" Fisher Tiger quivered, having explained what the fuck happened up in that cursed place and how he got out. "I didn't think I'd feel so...so_ hopeless_."_

_Jinbe was right there with him. "I'm so sorry, Ti." He apologised. "I didn't know you'd been held hostage by such bastards for all this time…"_

_Tiger sighed. "No no, it was not your fault, Jinbe." He comforted in a moment of irony. "I was the _slave_, not you. You had nothing to do with what happened to me." Growling the word 'slave'._

"_Still…" Jinbe trailed off, having felt even just slightly responsible. And then they just sat there in peace, for a good two minutes it was just them being alongside one another in times of comfort and reassurance._

"_I'm going back." And holy hell, what a way to break it down 20,000 leagues._

_Jinbe shot up. "_**EX-FUCKING-SCUSE ME?!**_" He demanded. "You just broke out of hell itself! _WHY_ would you go back there?!"_

_Tiger stood up with him. "As a slave, I saw and embraced things nobody should even have to know _exists_. When I said Mariejois is hell itself, inside and out, I meant it. That placed is cursed with something that I'm willing to sympathise with humanity for." He sighed. "I am willing to forego my vendetta to do something for the better of everyone."_

_Jinbe narrowed his eyes. "What are you planning, Tiger?" He demanded. Ti did some stupid shit sometimes, so he needed to know whether or not he was going too far._

"_I'm returning to Mariejois to free the slaves from those heartless bastards." Tiger answered._

_Jinbe's eyes widened. "You plan to free the Fish-Men held captive?!" He was shocked that Tiger was this determined to save his kin. Balls of steel._

_Except the sea bream shook his head. "No, Jinbe. I plan to rescue _all_ of the slaves in Mariejois, be they Fish-Man, human, _everyone_."_

_Jinbe was surprised that even with Tiger's vendeta that this was his choice. "What?!" He'd gladly free the humans himself, but Tiger? He didn't expect that._

_Tiger lowered his own head, emitting a low growl evidently suppressed. "Everyone in that damn castle is a slave, someone used as a tool for the gain of a clan so disgusting I would gladly work with humanity to be rid of them." He explained. "A slave is a slave, Jinbe, regardless of species. And I will not deny any man his freedom, even when I heavily despise his kind. This is the lesser to a _far_ greater evil, and I will gladly fight it with my life."_

_Jinbe was, to be honest, incredibly impressed with Tiger's resolve. For as long as he'd known him, Tiger hated humans for being an oppressive species, especially towards their own kind. Hell, if it wasn't for Whitebeard coming by a few years back to protect Fish-Man Island by claiming it as his territory, the whole thing would have sustenance and living proof to this day. Even when gasbagging about his family- not just friends, damn _family_\- in the Dream Realm, he listened for the whole spiel. He even once said that he'd like to meet them, even if it's just proof that there are good people._

_TL;DR, he was proud of Tiger; priorities were a lot more important than people give them credit for._

_Nonetheless, there was business. "So you're to drag yourself all the way back to the Red Line, likely climb it with your _bare hands_, commit the largest and worst jailbreak in world history, and live to tell the tale." Jinbe summarised. "And you expect me to just let you be on your merry way?"_

"_Yes." The honesty is strong with this one._

_Jinbe couldn't help but droop forwards in defeat; getting through Tiger mentally was basically mental cinder block._

_Although...he did have one wish now that Tiger was set on this. It may piss off his family, but if he didn't at least ask, he wouldn't be able to live with himself afterwards._

_He turned his attention back up to Tiger. "Very well, Ti: I'll let you free the slaves atop the Red Line."_

_Tiger bowed his head. "I thank you for understanding, brother." He replied in gratitude, pleased that Jinbe understood why he had to do this._

"_On one condition." Oh boy, here we go._

_Tiger narrowed his eyes. "And what that might be, _Jinbe_?" He leered._

_Jinbe looked directly into Fisher Tiger's eyes, sharp as a tack. "You're taking me with you."_

* * *

"WHAT?!"

That was about the reaction Jinbe had expected from the two of them. "Indeed," He confirmed. "I requested that I help Ti in freeing the slaves of Mariejois."

Robin ran forward, trying to shake Jinbe out of it. "Why would you just risk your life like that?! We care for you too, you know!" All she really did was pull his uniform's plating back and forth.

Franky then walked up to him, slowly pulling Robin away. Considering he was twenty, the displayed maturity was impressive.

"Bro," He started. "What the fuck?" Maybe not so impressive. "Letting Tiger run wild is risky enough as is. But going yourself? You trying to give us a _super_ heart attack?!"

"EXACTLY!" Robin yelled. Honestly, it shocked Jinbe from how out of character it seemed of her. "Why would you go to hell itself to be a hero?! I don't get it!" Huh. Goes to show how deeply she cares for 'em.

Kneeled down to Robin. "This raid isn't about us being heroes, Robin," He told the Luopian. "It's about giving people _hope_."

The girl took a step back. "Hope?"

Jinbe nodded. "Yes. Like I said about Tiger, that place completely traumatised him to the point of visibly shaking in fear and anger, something that he's never done for _anything_." The gravity of the situation was dire, but he needed to convince Robin that the plan to rescue the poor souls wasn't more so.

The young girl was conflicted. She agreed that the poor souls in there shouldn't be, and wanted them to be on the outside. To be given the same chance she had received. But at the same time, she didn't want to risk the chances of Jinbe possibly dying in the attempt to rescue them. She didn't want to lose family from those bastards, not again.

"Jinbe," Robin snapped out of her thoughts as all eyes were on Brook, who was walking towards Jinbe. The footsteps were heavy, not even the grass stopping the pulsating echo through the Dream Realm.

As Brook stopped in front of him, Jinbe raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

Brook lowered his bowling hat from his head. "Could you please, you know, _not_ die?" He requested, dropping Franky's jaw and freezing Robin solid.

Jinbe bowed forward to Brook. "Of course." He assured. No way in hell he'd just die to some guards in a prison.

Robin turned to Brook immediately. "But-"

"Now, Robin," Brook cut her off. "Be it noble or stupid, this is Jinbe's decision to make, his life to risk, not yours." Robin lowered her head. She didn't want to admit it was true, but… "If anything, I'd try to do the same thing. If there's one thing as valuable as a man's life, it's his freedom. Without freedom, is it really a life? Is it really worth being there without being able to do anything within your own free will?"

Jinbe sighed. "Look, the point is that I'm going to Mariejois with Tiger to free the slaves and that's final, alright?" Silence stood for a couple seconds after that. Nobody moved, nobody spoke, nobody _anything'd_.

Robin slowly walked up to Jinbe, hair covering her eyes. He'd completely forgot that it had started to grow out. By the time she reached him, she just stood there for a good ten seconds. Did she want something else? He was still going regardless of what she said.

When he felt a punch to his abdomen, he looked down confused. It didn't hurt him in the slightest, but the force taken was enough to know the life on Gaulseer Ranch was really paying off for her.

Robin glared up to Jinbe. "I swear to god, if you die-"

"You're going to kill me?" Jinbe challenged with a smirk. All it did was make Robin pout. _Success_.

"Just…" Robin walked back up to hug Jinbe again. "Just come back. Please?" She pleaded, face covered with worry.

Jinbe nodded, smiling. "I promise, Robin, I'll live. You don't have to worry about that."

Robin's grip tightened. "You better..." She whispered.

The two heard the crunch of grass, Jinbe turning to see Franky. "So then…" He trailed off, having accepted how stubborn Jinbe was. "Breaking _into_ a prison, huh?" He smirked.

Jinbe laughed. "I suppose it sounds silly in retrospect, doesn't it?"

"I'll say," Brook agreed. "It's certainly the first time I've heard of it."

Robin looked back up to the Fish-Man, suddenly remembering something. "Oh, Jinbe, did you want some tea?"

Jinbe raised an eyebrow. "Is it iced mint and coconut?" He asked, to which Robin shook her head. Before she could even tell him what flavour it actually was, his mind was set. "Then yes, I'd be happy to."

Everyone laughed at that.

* * *

_Tiger tilted his head to the side, crossing his arms. "I'm sorry?"_

_Jinbe, still maintaining his conviction, "I said I'm coming with you to free the slaves."_

_A sigh was let off from Tiger. Actually, it was more of a groan than anything. "And _why_ do you want to go on this _suicide mission_ exactly?" He demanded, suddenly sounding like an insomniac._

_Jinbe threw his arms into Tiger's direction, gesturing him. "Look what happened to you in five to six years in that cursed place. They traumatised and broke down my sworn brother. And even without that vengeance on the mind, you expect me to sit by and do nothing when there are others still there in the same situation?!" Jinbe was offended by Tiger questioning why, though it may be for the wrong reasons. Heart's still where it should be, though. "You're planning to risk your life by climbing up a stone wall beyond the clouds, storm through, by what you've told me, one of the most guarded locations in the world, break out every last person within chain, make sure everyone lives to tell the tale...And you want me to let you do this_ ALONE_?!"_

"_Yes." Dammit, this was going to be a thing._

_Jinbe shook his head. "Yeah, no. Not happening." He put his foot down. I'm just as reckless as you are, as stupid as you are, as _embracing of one's freedom_ as you are. And thinking that you'll just leave me behind in the dust without repercussion is one of the worst fallacies I've heard in my life." He jabbed a finger into Tiger's forehead. "Now you're going to let me help you break out every last sentient being with a hoof on their skin, or so help me I'll break your legs and do it _my_self."_

_The whole time Jinbe ranted about going, Tiger just stared at him with his standard blank look, which looked like he was cranky without context, to be fair. Even now, after the threat right to his face, he was still unhealthily stoic._

_...nevermind, that didn't last long._

"_You're not going to stop ranting until I allow you to assist me, are you?" Tiger asked._

_Jinbe pumped a fist in front of him, determination coating his face. "Damn straight."_

_Tiger let out a long sigh before giving a proper answer. "Very well then. Odds are you'd've snuck on board my ship anyways." Jinbe nodded, smiling. From the acceptance of him assisting or the prediction of _exactly_ what would happen, nobody knows. "A fair warning, however. As I said, I plan to scale the Red Line with nothing but my bare hands, carrying a bunch of weapons and the clothes on my back. Are you sure you'd make such a long climb?"_

_Jinbe rose a finger. "Okay, first off, we don't know if you will either." He accused. "Besides, if I need to use every last drop of adrenaline for the rest of my life to get up there, then so be it."_

_Tiger nodded. "Alright. Say we do make it; do you have any idea what we would have to do?"_

"_Hmmm…" Jinbe put a hand to his almost nonexistent chin. "There are two approaches, both of them finish off loud." When Tiger nodded, Jinbe pressed on. "We can either go in guns blazing and water crushing from the start, though that would attract attention far earlier, or we can try to be quiet and sneak through to find most of the keys, or at least another way to remove cuffs they almost certainly have. For the latter, we wait until we can get everyone out in one fell swoop, then get loud and save time for everyone."_

_Tiger nodded at these plans. "I like it, I like it," He agreed. "However, I want more than to just clean their cells; I want Mariejois to _burn_."_

_Jinbe nodded. "I think I know a guy that can help with that." He smirked. Considering Franky's track record of making crazy shit in record time, he could probably make some explosives for the job._

_Tiger rose an eyebrow. "And whomst is that?" He demanded._

_Jinbe shrugged his shoulders. "I'll explain when we head off. It'll make sense then."_

_Tiger leered, unsure of, Jinbe had to admit, an incredibly unorthodox claim. "Alright then, I'll leave that to you." He concluded._

"_Very well," Jinbe nodded. "Anything else?"_

_A look that could make Satan shit his finest pants came to fruition. "A desire to wring hell upon that damned place."_

_Jinbe also nodded to this. "Already ahead of you."_

_Tiger nodded. "Then that should be everything," He then started walking back to the celebration, Jinbe following suit. "Now then, I've already informed Neptune and Otohime of my goal and mission, so they know what's going to happen. If I recall, you're wearing the military uniform of Fish-Man Island, so you may need to talk to Neptune yourself."_

_Jinbe had thought about this since he demanded he come along. "I plan to, don't worry." He assured. "I'm not going to be so careless as to bring shame and criminal activity to this place."_

"_Good, good." Tiger thanked. "Alright then, make sure to tell nobody else under any circumstances. For you, the Dream Realm is an exception since they're not going to do much from their own locations." Jinbe nodded. He _did_ need their help for one of the weapons, after all. "We leave for the Sabaody Archipelago in two days, climbing the left side of the Red Line. It'll also be our escape route. That's the basis of the plan, and we'll discuss further over the next two days about any possible alterations."_

_Considering another nod from Jinbe walked through the door, it seems he's gotten down everything so far. "Noted."_

_Tiger leered forward into the celebration, barely meters from being seen. "Within 48 hours, The Holy Land _will_ fall." He growled, before walking to greet everybody, who welcomed him with open arms._

_Jinbe, still in the shadows, also glared into nowhere. "No man shall be without their freedom." He then walked out into the light, cheers snapping him back into the mood._


	12. Very Unholy

DATE: AUGUST 6th, 2019 (6/8/19)

* * *

**The next day**

* * *

Neptune sighed. "So you are resigning from the military, Jinbe." He concluded.

Jinbe didn't move his head as he looked down, bowing on one knee. "Yes, your majesty," He confirmed. "After what Brother Ti had told me, I couldn't bring myself to be idle and wished to help him free everyone." He looked up directly to the king. "I resign from the Neptune Army so not as to soil this kingdom with my future actions, nor criminal status."

Neptune nodded, understanding. "I thank you for the consideration of the people and the risks it would have, Jinbe."

Jinbe also noded. "It was what would possibly happen to the kingdom that gave me reluctance in the first place." He responded. "By cutting my ties, I can relieve Fish-Man Island of any action I commit, which shall be for my own shoulders to carry."

Neptune was silent for a bit, likely thinking about the whole thing. Considering Fisher Tiger had come here to inform them of his plan yesterday, and now knowing Jinbe was going there with him, this may have some reasoning behind it similar.

Perhaps it was for the best. "Very well Jinbe, I hereby resign you from the Neptune Army for the sake of personal ambitions. Thank you for your service."

Jinbe lowered his head again in respect. "It has been an honour, your majesty."

He then suddenly heard footsteps, with the sound coming in his direction. There was also a "Hm?" let out be Neptune.

"I beg your pardon, Jinbe," He looked up to see Otohime standing before him, leaning her hands on her knees. "But may I ask you something?"

Jinbe stood back up. "Of course, miss Otohime." He replied.

Otohime tried to say something, but cut herself off, looking down to the floor beside Jinbe. After a good seven seconds, she tried again. "W-When Tiger came here to inform us of his plan against..._there_," It seems she didn't have a very bright opinion on Mariejois. "He said that he had se...seen…" She trailed off a bit again. "_Human nature_." _OH_. _that_. Yeah, that made a _lot_ of sense. They had both been an advocate on bettering the relations between humans and fish-men alike, but had been their literal namesakes about the whole thing: Otohime wanted to meet and welcome them, Tiger wanted them to stay away from them for the sake of both parties. It made sense she was afraid of what Tiger had said. And seeing as she had rather good Observation Haki, as well as could just naturally read a person's words by looking into their heart through their eyes… "Jinbe, I must ask you...what do you think about humans?"

He knew she was going to ask that before it even left her mouth. She wanted to know if his opinion were the same as Tiger's, or if he thought differently, or if at all. She had this paranoia that all of her efforts to finally associate humans and fish-men would go to waste if they were all truly as cruel as Tiger had experienced.

Jinbe shook his head before looking up to the king. "Neptune, do you mind if I take some time from Otohime's day?" He asked.

"Hoh hoh hoh," Neptune chuckled to himself. "Not at all, Jinbe; nothing's been planned today."

Jinbe bowed forward. "Much obliged." He thanked before turning to the queen beside him. "Otohime, If you'd please?" He gestured towards the walkway beside them as he went down there, Otohime following behind.

As they were walking, he turned to the queen. "You asked me what I thought on humans, yes?" He asked with a stern look.

Otohime grew tense. "Yes, I did." She answered.

Jinbe sighed. He hadn't told anybody besides Tiger before. But he figured he could trust Otohime with this; she was good with secrets.

"Alright then," Jinbe spoke. "I'll tell you some stories about some humans I met years ago."

Otohime _really_ didn't want to ask, but she felt if she didn't, her life would ache for however long it was left. "Were they...cruel humans?" She voiced, almost squealing about even having to ask that aloud in the first place.

Fortunately for her health, Jinbe smiled. "Not in the least," He replied. "I still know them to this day, and they're the closest family I have." He turned back to where they were walking. "I wouldn't give them up for anything in the world."

He could've sworn that Otohime fucking _glowed_. Like a firefly. And even if she hadn't, she was grinning wider than her own head (which was shaped like a pigskin, mind you. 'I shouldn't be thinking about her head like that…' he thought to himself.), only to grab on to Jinbe's arm and shake it violently.

"Really?!" She cried. "You're serious?"

Jinbe laughed. "Of course." He answered. "As I said, some of the greatest people I've ever known."

As childish as it looked, though she didn't seem to care, Otohime was bounding up and down on her feet in excitement. "Please!" She begged. "Tell me everything there is to know. I want to know about these kind souls!"

Jinbe couldn't help but grin at the queens eagerness. Thanks to him, she had hope again, possible proof that not all humanity was cursed and wretched. There may be outliers, like what happened to Tiger, but that was among Fish-Men as well, Arlong being a good example.

He turned back to where they were going again, happy to tell her the tales he'd experienced over the course of 21 years. It was like writing a documentary!

"It would be my pleasure, your majesty." Jinbe replied, which only got the queen to squeal like a schoolgirl in excitement.

* * *

**That night**

* * *

"You want me to make _what_?"

"Did I stutter?

"I'm pretty sure _I_ did."

"Bombs that can be exploded from a sizeable distance."

Franky nodded. "Alright then. _Why_ do you need a remote bomb?" he asked quizzically.

"I have an idea," Jinbe replied. "Tiger wants Mariejois to be downright melted, similar to Ohara, and I figured that we need a diversion to make freeing the slaves easier; what if before Tiger and I went to free the prisoners, we planted several bombs across Mariejois and then blew them up when we were in the cells to bring their attention away from us and buy time?"

Franky gave a feral grin. "Diversionism _and_ destruction, huh?" He asked, eager. "Alright then, I can make a few. How many do you need and by when? Also, what _super_ range do you think you'll need?"

Jinbe pulled up some fingers to keep count of each counter request. "For the range, make it approximately a kilometre between the remote and the bomb itself. And we need between ten and twenty five, _maybe_ more, and apologies in advance, but we need them by tomorrow evening."

Franky's eyes widened at the deadline. "Tomorrow evening?!" He shouted, grabbing Robin's attention from outside. "Well why didn't you say so? That'll be piss easy!"

Jinbe was honestly shocked that such a destructive and important demand sounded like child's play. "What?"

Franky grinned wider still. "Dude, if you need them by tomorrow I could hook you up with like, five hundred!" He claimed. "Hell, I may as well make some other different weapons for the raid!"

Jinbe got an idea; their cuffs. "A chain cutter?"

"For cuffs and chains? Sure! Everything but Seastone should work out!"

"Alright then, what about said seastone?"

"I could try and make a _super_ special all-in-one key, but that may take a bit more time; might cost two hundred of the remote bombs."

"500 was too many to begin with."

"Spoilsport."

"How the hell do you know how to make these anyway?"

"I make Sea King-killing ships for a living; I can craft pretty damn well, you know!"

"I'll take your word for it."

As Franky went to grab another cola, Jinbe went to get some drafting paper from Franky's workshop. If he wanted this to work as effectively as possible, he wanted to make sure he got everything he and Tiger would need in their best state they could possibly be.

When Jinbe got back, he saw a small navy blue box on the table, three tiny coloured domes on the side, Franky putting a hand on the table and leaning on it with a satisfied smirk on his face.

Jinbe rose an eyebrow. "What's that?" He asked. It wasn't there before.

Franky's grin widened. "A _super_ prototype of the design." He answered.

Jinbe didn't so much as blink. "I'm not going to pretend I'm surprised you did that within five minutes without me noticing any missing materials."

Franky shrugged. "It's my schtick." He offered. "Anyways, let me show you how these work so you don't blow yourself up at Mariejois through trial and error."

Jinbe nodded. "Very well, show me what you got." He then sat down at the table, Franky taking his own seat.

"Okay, so this bomb is going to be _super_ powerful. No, _stupid_ powerful. Almost enough to level a building," The twenty year old started. "Upon activation, it kickstarts a charge which causes the gunpowder inside to become lit. The gunpowder is a special mix I made myself. I wanted to name it 'Franky 'X'' like everything else, but none of my ideas for names seemed to work, so I just named it 'Buenos Días' instead." He then pointed to the coloured...things on the side in a slight rectangular divot. "These three mark in which of the three phases the bomb is in. The green one means the bomb is on and useable. If it or the others aren't lit up, then the bomb's malfunctioned of sorts." He pulled out a small remote from behind him. "This is how you connect and activate each bomb. As you can see, each number has two buttons. The first one, the orange one, is to connect the button to a specific bomb, linking it to the remote." He then pointed to the bomb, a small white button below the orange light. "If you press these together simultaneously, or roughly so, the bomb's function is linked to that number on the remote. I suggest planting a bomb, then linking it to the remote before moving on to the next one." He pointed to the orange light. "Once a bomb is connected to the remote, it's able to detonate, and the light will shift from the green one to the orange one." He then drew attention back to the remote. "Finally, there's the second button for the numbers, the red one. Once you press this on a linked bomb, it'll change the bomb's light from orange to the third and final colour: red," He pointed back to the third and final light on the bomb. "Once you press the button on the remote, this lights up. Three seconds after you press the detonate button on the remote, the bomb explodes, causing a massive explosion that can probably melt a dude's face off." Back to the remote. "From there, you link every single bomb to the remote, detonating them as you will until they're all done. This has 10, but again, it's only a prototype; the actual one'll probably be bigger and have maybe one or two hundred designated numbers."

Jinbe was damn impressed from this explanation. And seeing as Franky didn't say 'super' once during the main spiel, he knew he meant business. It was exactly what he wanted from a sort of stealth mission to break the slaves out before running loud, as well as sated Tiger's demand for Mariejois' bloodshed.

"Alright, my idea matches well with this." Jinbe said. "My plan is to link all of the bombs there, or needed, sneak into the area where the slaves are kept, detonate the bombs slowly one after another to derive attention off of us in addition to breaking the damn place, freeing the slaves during the noise pollution, and escaping with as many of them as possible."

Franky gave a wicked grin. "_Super_." He complimented. "I couldn't have said it better myself."

Jinbe also grinned. "Alright, Tiger may also want some enhanced weapons for the breaking out part. Can you manage that?" He asked, knowing that Tiger's current weapons may _barely_ work if lucky.

Franky nodded. "Sure!" He replied. "What would he use?"

A shrug from the whale shark. "Anything he can carry. A one-handed bazooka, a large sabre, a pistol, katanas, just about everything."

This gave the Water 7 resident an idea. "I can definitely improve on the bazooka; make it more powerful, quicker reload, better accuracy, less overheating-"

Jinbe just smiled as Franky went on and on about how he could help out. If only Tiger could've seen this now. Hell, he was sure Franky'd go nuts about being able to meet him.

"Jinbe," He turned to see Robin offering him a glass of lemonade, likely handmade from how murky the glass was. Turns out life giving her lemons made her a hell of a lemonade. "Would you like some?"

Jinbe lowered his head, taking the glass from her. "Thank you kindly."

* * *

**The next night**

* * *

"Alright, Jinbe, let's go over this one final time." Tiger ordered.

"Very well," Jinbe accepted. "Step one?"

"Climb the Red Line; a fucked up feat on its own. Step two?"

"I fall asleep and bring all the weapons we're using, be it combative or the bombs to help break them out. Step three?"

"Sneak into Mariejois' boundaries without getting noticed. Security may be uptight, so a scouting may be necessary first. Step four?"

"After finding a suitable path of action, move in, carefully placing each bomb around Mariejois, close enough so everything gets hit, but far enough so they don't detonate each other. Step five?"

"Find a way into where they're keeping the slaves, hiding in the shadows as to divert attention and prevent being spotted by security. Step six?"

"Once prepared, detonate the first bomb to bring the entire city's attention to the explosion. During the commotion, they're likely to yell something along the lines of 'Show yourselves!' Step seven?"

"As we detonate the second bomb forty seconds after the first one, we use the noise and diversion to free the strongest slaves to assist us in breaking out everyone else. Step eight?"

"One of us detonates the bombs one by one to maintain noise pollution, the other leading the breakout of everyone there. Nothing stops until everyone is out of their cuffs and cells. Step nine?"

"Hand everyone any weapon possible as to help them provided they may get separated, which I must thank this Franky person for making so many incredibly powerful ones, and track down an escape root depending on where the guards and officers have sprawled after the entire city had begun to melt. Step ten?"

Jinbe smirked. "Run like hell, taking out anybody who gets in the way and protecting any of the weakened slaves from being left behind. Step eleven?"

"Get to the lifts used for official transportation, which _should_ be on top of the Red Line at this time of night. Using two or three of them, cut the wires used to hold them up, and lower everybody down to the ocean. Safety of the slaves, however, is as much of a priority as escaping. Step twelve?"

"Sneak everyone to the coated ships we borrowed and go into hiding underwater for a few hours, making sure they lose sight of us as tracklessly as possible. Step thirteen?"

"As we will likely become criminals after this event, deliver every slave back to where they wish as quickly and quietly as possible, making sure they are not convicted of the same crimes we will be." Tiger put a hand to his chin. "I believe that is everything?"

Jinbe nodded. "From scalp to sole, that should be the plan in full."

Tiger turned back to the front of the boat, looking ahead. "Then we'd best prepare ourselves: we're almost there."

The two were approaching the Red Line, specifically a short distance away from the Sabaody Archipelago. They had planned to approach near the citizen's crossing entrance, which their coater said was called the Red Port, move a little bit southeast, and start their climb from there.

The whole plan revolved around being stealthy and avoiding attention for around 4⁄5ths of the raid, the other fifth being the escape between the holy land and back to the Grand Line, using the lifts between there to get up and back down. They were called Bondoloas, but they just decided to call them lifts as it was universally simpler unless dire.

Jinbe turned the ship south, headed to the right of Paradise's Red Port. So far so good, nobody's noticed.

"Jinbe."

He turned to Tiger. "You need something?" He asked, still steering the ship.

"..." At first, Tiger said nothing. "I'm...sorry for dragging you into all this." He apologised. "I should've never told you what had happened to me from the start."

Jinbe rose an eyebrow. From there, he removed himself from the helm, walking up to TIger. As he approached Tiger, the latter rose his own eyebrow. Jinbe then stopped right in front of Tiger, standing there for a few seconds, building tension. Did Jinbe need something from _him_?

BAM!

All that really did happen was Jinbe grabbing Tiger's shirt before slugging him across the face. Not hard enough to knock him out, but enough to get the message.

As Tiger reeled back, holding his cheek, "What the fuck?!" He demanded.

Jinbe jabbed a finger in his direction. "I told you this before, and apparently I have to tell you _again_," He loathed. "Even if you didn't tell me, I'd've hounded you for hours on days on weeks on end to find out what had stirred you, and would end up sneaking onto here to help you out, regardless if you want me to, let alone for the sake of my own safety. I told you before, I'm helping out from my own personal choice, and would've still done so even if you told me nothing, so stop apologising like it'll make a difference. _Stop acting like it's your fault._"

Tiger looked at Jinbe...rather shocked. Even after being the reason he could die, Jinbe still took the blame for coming on his own shoulders. Honestly, it was awe inspiring; you don't see people take responsibility like that these days.

Tiger eventually sighed. "Alright then," He surrendered, now pointing to Jinbe. "If you die on this mission, that's on you."

Jinbe chuckled to himself. "I'd rather it not any other way." He accepted. He came here, the burden's on his head.

Before they knew it, they had found the Red Port, already moving southeast so as to avoid sight. To reiterate, with this climb being beyond even a Fish-Man's vision, it was a good thing the Dream Realm stored all of their tools. If it didn't, then it'd just make the climb that much harder. Even if they did have to carry everything, Tiger had to admit in retrospect that Jinbe being here would make carrying the load far easier.

As their boat started to approach a good fifty metres away from the crimson serpent, they began preparing to dive in for the swim there.

"Tiger."

Said sea bream turned to Jinbe. "Yes?"

Jinbe grasped his fist afront himself. "We _will_ free everyone. I swear it." He promised.

Tiger looked back in front to the Red Line. "Hatch the chickens first, Jinbe."

Jinbe crossed his arms. "It's less about the probability and more about how we _are_ going to do it." He shot back.

Tiger smirked. "Fair enough." He conceded.

From there, they said nothing as they dove off the bow into the cold night water below. They then started swimming the relatively short distance between the boat and the biggest rock face in the multiverse.

As they reached the giant rock, Tiger turned to Jinbe. "This is the last time I'm asking, Jinbe: are you sure you want a part in this?"

Jinbe sighed, aggravated. Not only was he needed to get their tools from the Dream Realm in the first place, but he had emphasised again and again that he was doing this.

"And this is the last time I hear that from you _without_ punching you again." He shot back.

Tiger groaned, softly facepalming. "Why did I know you were going to say that?"

Jinbe crossed his arms. "If you knew that was going to be the answer, then why did you ask the question?"

And then, white eyes and shark teeth, they butted heads.

"BECAUSE I WORRY FOR YOUR SAFETY, DAMMIT!"

"TI, YOU KNOW SAFETY IS NOTHING OF MY OWN CONCERN RIGHT ABOUT NOW!"

"FOR FUCK'S SAKE, JINBE, CAN'T A GUY WORRY FOR HIS BROTHER?!"

"NOT REALLY SHOWING WHEN YOU'RE TRYING TO SHOO HIM AWAY LIKE AN INBRED CARP!"

"THE FUCK DID YOU CALL ME!?"

I SAID I'M HELPING YOU OUT, THE FUCK YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT!"

"**WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP?! IT'S THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!**"

The two turned to the Red Port, where apparently they had been heard. Rather than called out, though, they had been criticized about how loud they were. Odd.

"Sorry!" The two apologized, raising an arm each.

"**Thank you. Now please be a bit more quiet when you're bickering!**" The voice chot back. Probably the patrol for the Red Port.

The two turned towards each other. "How the hell did we not get called out?" Jinbe asked, raising an eyebrow.

Tiger shrugged. "Guess the world really is insane." He concluded. "Or humans are just ignorant."

Jinbe groaned. "Not this shit again…"

The two turned back to the Red Line. Fortunately, there was a small little divot they could stand on near them where they could dry up. It didn't matter whether or not a Fish-Man was wet, but damn was it easier to climb stone with a dry grasp.

Tiger jumped from his spot on the divot, grabbing on to the wall itself to begin his climb. "Let's do this." He proclaimed.

Jinbe nodded before jumping and grabbing some of the stone himself. He may not be as good of a climber as Tiger, as their body types from their species easily portrayed, but he wouldn't let that hold him back, dammit!

How high was the Red Line again?

* * *

After about four thousand metres of climbing wordlessly, aside from some groans, Jinbe decided to look down. And when he did? God_damn_, the ocean was smaller than he remembered.

"Well that's just terrifying." He muttered, deadpanning.

Tiger turned his head back to Jinbe. "Then don't look down. It's not that hard." He explained.

Jinbe rose an eyebrow. "And what would you be doing?" He asked.

"Looking down," Tiger answered instantly. "I'm the one criticizing you for the matter."

As Tiger continued climbing, Jinbe sighed. 'He's never heard of sarcasm before, has he?' He thought to himself, continuing to climb. He wasn't sure if it was from the endless training in the Dream Realm, but how hadn't he grown tired yet?

* * *

Tiger groaned heavily as he finally grabbed onto some horizontal ground, hoisting himself up. "Finally!" He groaned a cheer through the adrenaline still going through him. He had some sweating, but overall didn't seem too bad off after the climb. God_damn_ was this thing tall.

"You can...say _that_...again." Tiger turned around to see Jinbe pulling himself up, slightly more tired than he was. Frankly, he was impressed; he had expected Jinbe to either fall off or barely make it and run out of energy for like, three days. Guess the training he mentioned really payed off.

"Alright, we've done the impossible," Tiger spoke, referencing climbing the Red Line with nothing but webbed hands and sheer willpower. He turned towards the forest ahead of them, likely leading to Meriejois. "Now it's time to do the impossible."

Jinbe stretched his back, being stiff from the whole thing mostly using his arms and legs. "Oh _goody_," He muttered. "A 2 for 1 deal." The two then set forth for possibly the easiest part of the mission.

I'll just summarize their little journey through the forest real quickly; All they found was trees, trees, bushes, trees, a pug with a bubble on its head that they guided back the other way, and wouldn't you know it? _More_ trees! Oh, and some vines that caused Tiger to be tangled up at one point. If it weren't for the fact that Jinbe knew they had to me whisper quiet from here on out, he'd've laughed out hella loud at the sight.

Eventually, the easy comes to pass for the other end of the coin, reaching the end of the forest and finding a small city of sorts. The houses were either sizeable two stories or mansions, where the Celestial Dragons resided. They were all white with blue roofs. Behind all of those, though, was where reportedly some of the government's highest ranked members operated: Pangaea Castle, lined in a golden colour with green roofings.

As pretty as the paint jobs looked, the place let off a painful aura of nothing but malice and greed. When Jinbe looked towards Pangaea Castle, he felt...corruption? He knew the Marines and World Government as a whole were sketchy but...this feeling...he hadn't felt something so _evil_ before. It was like whatever was inside had endless power and demanded more for the sake of having more, casting aside anything beneath through sheer malice for _sport_.

Tiger was right. This place...he couldn't even describe it without his mind stuttering.

He turned to his right when heard Tiger letting off a low growl. "Oh, how I anticipate bringing this blemish to ashes." He spat.

Jinbe couldn't help but agree. "I concur. Mariejois...it's as fucked up as I thought. it'd be." He spoke. "I can't tell if that's a good thing or not anymore."

Tiger shook his head. "It matters not," He rationed. "By the light of tomorrow, this place will be coated in red and licked by fire." He turned to Jinbe. "Now go to sleep. We need everything we can muster for this to work best."

Jinbe nodded, propping himself against a nearby tree out of sight from outside. He seemed to fall asleep nearly instantly.

Tiger stood against a seperate tree, acting as a lookout. "I can only hope this goes well," he sighed to himself. "Those bastards don't deserve to walk the land they claim to own."

* * *

"Come on, what's taking him?!" Franky demanded, hands slamming the table having grown impatient.

Brook rose a finger from the kitchen bench. "Now now, Franky," He chastised. "He's climbing the _Red Line_, may I remind you. Even among those who can, it takes time to do such a feat."

Robin sunk further into the table like a puddle. "I just hope he and Tiger don't fall off back into the ocean." She sighed.

Franky glared at her white-eyed. "NOT THE TIME FOR THAT, SIS!" He cried.

"What time is it?" The three turned to see Jinbe having come out from downstairs, ready to go.

"Jinbe!" Robin immediately dashed out to give him a tight hug, Franky also running towards him and offering a high-five, which Jinbe gave with a smile.

Brook followed suit. "Are you two ready?" He asked Jinbe.

The Sunny's resident Fish-Man nodded. "Indeed," He responded. "I'm just here to collect everything."

Franky pumped his fists up. "_Super_!" He cheered. "Already ahead of ya!" He brought his right hand to the attention of the bombs and weapons in the corner of the room. There were about eighty bombs, Tiger's bazooka that looked far more lethal now, and a bunch of other weapons for the two of them.

"How did I not notice those before?" Robin asked, perplexed.

Franky rubbed his hands together in excitement. "Showtime!"


	13. Saint Marie

DATE: AUGUST 7th, 2019 (7/8/19)

* * *

It had been about forty minutes since Jinbe had fallen asleep, and for the majority of it, Tiger was making sure it stayed that way.

There were a couple instances that something happened, like a couple World Nobles walking on the sidewalk (for what reason at this time of night, he had no clue), as well as the pug from before coming back to Tiger. For some reason, it was like it knew they were hiding and made sure to be quiet. Tiger gave it a quick pet before sending it back on its way. Tiger had no idea what kind of animal it was, but it definitely seemed to enjoy life. Ran faster than it looked like it probably should be able to, though.

He heard a rustling from beside him, tensing inside in case he'd been found out. Fortunately, all he did find was Jinbe standing back up, shaking his head a bit.

Tiger walked up to him. "Is everything ready?" He asked.

Jinbe nodded. "Yep," He responded. "I got everything we need and then some." He jabbed a thumb behind him for Tiger to see.

What Tiger saw made him, honestly, shocked. Maybe even a slight bit concerned. There were two large, black sacks for carrying, filled with roughly eighty blue and yellow boxes, presumably the bombs, a long board with buttons and some plastic casing over it, his bazooka from before which looked like it came from the eleventy seventh floor of super hell, as well as a bunch of other weapons like pistols, swords, hammers, the lot of it.

Yep, this Franky was the real deal. "I have no words." He muttered.

Jinbe smirked. "Thank god for that." He muttered, grabbing the sack with the bombs and board and slinging it over his shoulder, as well as grabbing a large sabre. He also put a pistol into his kimono for good measure.

"Oi." Tiger growled, grabbing his sack of stuff.

Jinbe cleared his throat quietly. "Okay, two things. First, these sacks are something Franky made for things like this. They're mainly built with a material he found to reduce noise pollution, making it so these don't just jingle when we move across Mariejois." He pulled out the board, about the size of his chest. "Second, this is the remote to detonate these things," He pointed to the bombs. "We link a bomb to the remote, cover it with the case so we don't accidentally blow up everything at the wrong time, move to the next one, repeat."

Tiger nodded. "Fair enough," He conceded. "I'm sure Franky knows far more about this than either of us."

As Jinbe also nodded, they grabbed their things before quietly sneaking out of the forest towards the city. Making as little noise as possible, the two of them hid behind the nearest house, which luckily for them, had no windows on that quarter of the house.

Tiger turned to Jinbe. "Where do we plant the first one?" He whispered. He never did get the answer to that.

Jinbe pulled one out of his sack quickly. "Half of these are going to be for diverting attention and burning the World Nobles here, spreading them throughout the area to try and hit everything," Jinbe whispered back. "The other half will be for bringing down the giant castle at the end, or by however much we can with what we have."

From his nod, Tiger seemed to get the point. It was lucky for them that it was the time of year it was, let alone the Red Line being this high up; it was dark as hell in Mariejois. They expected it to be _far_ brighter.

As soon as they checked to see all of the windows were either lightless or unoccupied, the two moved towards a house a bit further down, like a knight in a chess game.

Jinbe pulled out another bomb, as well as the remote, which already had a green light. "We want to hit everyone, but bring attention as far away from us as possible." He planted it slightly under the house, next to a pipe that felt hot to the touch: likely a gas chamber for ease of cooking. "As such, we'll start here and build our way down." He then pulled the cover of the case off with little effort and even less noise, pressing the red button on the bomb and an orange button on the board under a segment labelled '1' simultaneously. A couple seconds after he pressed them, the quietest beep ever occurred, the green light on the bomb turning off and the orange one turning on.

Tiger nodded. "Okay, I see how it works now." He whispered, making sure as to not get caught.

This is what they kept doing for a good twenty minutes, managing to plant another twelve bombs through the southwest corner of the city, moving into the southeast. It wasn't anywhere near as easy as this synopsis makes it seem, though. Jinbe had almost been found out by one of the Dragons who was strolling by the middle pathway, and Tiger had to duck under one particular window that suddenly had its lights turned on, a blonde Noble with a jet black, pencil thin moustache peeking his head out. Seemed strangely active tonight despite the little light. Maybe they were always this restless? Power _can_ do that to a guy, you know.

* * *

Before Jinbe could plant the thirteenth one near one of the sidewalks, two more Dragons came by, one of them a bluenette with a very distinctive bun, the other a tall man with a red pompadour and dark grey sunglasses. Why the hell would somebody wear sunglasses at night? Who does that?!

The bluenette sighed in the most posh way possible as the two Fish-Men hid near a nearby mansion, so much so that it made Tiger bare his teeth, seething as quietly as he could physically manage. "Oh, _why_ must we leave the slaves in Pangaea Castle at night?" She exaggeratedly complained. "I want to use them as a footrest during supper!"

The man pat the woman's back. "Worry not, my dearest," He comforted his fellow World Noble. "As much as I despise it as well, I agree with the government that it is for the best. What would happen if a guest saw somebody and wanted to break them out of our lovely home?"

Like a terrible actor, the woman rose a hand over her head, looking like she was about to faint. "Oh, but that would be _terrible_." She...Jinbe could've sworn she damn _moaned_. "I wouldn't wish to lose such a valuable slave just like that!"

"Precisely!" The man proclaimed. "They keep them there so that, in the emergency a foolish commoner crossing over decides to raid our home, they cannot have access to our slave. Why, I hear they keep them deep within the castle's basement, almost like a dungeon! And as shown each coming morning, it truly keeps each and every one of them in check!"

The bluenette nodded slowly. "I suppose that makes sense." She reasoned. "I just want my precious slave back…"

The man wrapped his arms around her. "And as I promised, we'll get them back first thing in the morning." After that promise, he began walking again, holding a hand out to her. "Come, my dearest, it's time you got a good night's sleep to maintain your absolutely _beautiful_ looks!"

The woman gracefully took his hand. "Of course, darling." She agreed, curtsying before they walked off to their home, which funnily enough seemed to be where they had placed the 9th bomb.

"Jinbe."

He turned to Tiger, who was looking the slightest bit more red than his skin. "Yes?"

"Have you ever been so enraged in all of your life?" Tiger seemed to have trouble maintaining his anger, barely holding in a loud scream that'd give them away easily.

"Angry? No." Jinbe turned to the couple's house. "Disgusted? Yes."

Fortunately, as they kept planting bombs slowly throughout Mariejois, they realised three bombs later the information they were so gracefully given by that couple; the slaves were kept deep in Pangaea Castle, and as such they didn't have to worry about accidentally blowing up a slave when exploding the houses of the World Nobles.

* * *

"Tch. Lowly commoners," A thick-accented voice spat. "When I say something happens, it _happens_!"

Around the thirty second bomb, Jinbe turned his attention to a World Noble with a slightly chubby neck, a small cleft, and incredibly long, black, curly hair. It went up beyond his scalp and incredibly far behind, but it had a split down the middle to the parting on his scalp. Hold on, was he wearing heels?

The man groaned. "Why did I have to lose such a valuable slave?" He spat again. "He was one of the finest Mariejois had ever seen. _Everyone_ was jealous! Now my social status has hit rock-bottom!"

From beside Jinbe, Tiger was openly seething, eyes bloodshot red, veins pulsing like crazy. He was _pissed_.

Jinbe put a hand on Tiger's shoulder, barely calming him down and redirecting the glare towards himself. "What's the matter?" He asked the sea bream quietly.

Tiger calmed down the slightest to get his tongue moving, but still had enough fury to burn water. He turned back to the man strutting in heels. "That's him." He spoke quietly, though still a bit too loud for comfort. "That's the damned human who captured and beslaved me, Saint Louis."

Jinbe's eyes widened. "That's the man who captured you?!" He whisper-yelled, shocked that they had just found the man who had done this.

Tiger pulled his shirt down from the collar, showing the Dragon's Hoof. "One and the same." He muttered, glaring at the damn burn. "He burned this cursed mark onto my flesh, he shot me, whipped me, made me fight other slaves against my will, used me as a footrest, _insulted my kin_. And all he did was stand from outside, or sit down with his feet on my back, laughing at my suffering the whole way through." He growled again. "The Celestial Dragons are one thing, but this man- no, this _monster_\- I wish for nothing more than his demise." He then turned his head to Jinbe. "When we blow up his house, would it not hurt for confirmation that he is inside?" He asked.

Jinbe just stared at Tiger, having just revealed how he'd been tortured and by whom. _For six years_. It ached him to see Tiger like this. And as such he nodded. "I'll see what we can do." He replied.

Tiger lowered his head. "Thank you."

The two heard more footsteps, turning to see a young girl running up to Saint Louis, no older than five. Like him, she was wearing the same outfit the World Nobles bore. Her hair was a silver colour, tied back in curled braids of sorts with a small bun at the back.

"Papa!" She called out to Louis.

Louis snapped his head back to her. "How many times must I tell you; don't call me that!" He demanded. "You must be more formal! Call me Father."

The girl lowered her head, pouting a bit. "Yes, pa-father." She muttered, catching herself.

Tiger's eyes widened. "Isn't that...?"

Jinbe turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "Who?" He whispered.

"He spoke once about having a daughter, Saint Marie," He responded, inspecting the young girl. "I never saw her myself since Louis kept ranting about how since I was a Fish-Man, I'd infect her with 'fish guts'." He seethed at the end. "Apparently, she's seen me before when I was unconscious. Likely laughed at me all the same."

Jinbe nodded. "I see." Was all he said on the matter, turning back to the two Dragons.

"Now speak, Marie, what is it?" Louis demanded.

"Well," She responded. "About Fisher Tiger-"

"Who now?" Louis asked, perplexed.

"The slave," Marie answered. "The one who escaped?"

Louis sighed. "Marie, you know full well slaves don't have names. Only their status as slaves, and whatever skin they're fortunate enough to still have on their back."

Marie visibly cringed at the thought. She was a lot smarter for her age than people gave her credit for.

"But yes, what of them?" He asked, issuing her to go on.

"What's wrong with him being like a fish?" She wondered, confused. "Why does that make them different than us?"

Louis just looked at her as if she had just spilled his morning coffee for a good ten seconds. As she looked with the same wonder as to why even still, he just started laughing.

"Shemimimimi." He chuckled. "You'll understand when you're older, Marie." He then started walking off. "You'll soon understand the power we have over the _whole world_."

Marie didn't care about that power, though. She just wanted people to be happy. Though considering the reputation she heard the Dragon's had on the people, she didn't think she'd be able to do that so easily.

And why slaves? Why was taking someone's life as your own tool for personal use acceptable? And why did everyone here act like it was the circle of life? Second nature?! Why was everyone so selfish?! But...at least her pa- no, _father _still loved her...right?

"But I-" She tried to speak, but Louis gave no signs of paying attention in the slightest. As such, she just sighed. This happened a lot; children were meant to listen to the adults, as their word was absolute. It was actually like being a slave...without the torment, of course.

She turned to the forest, one of the few natural, calming things in this city. As she looked through it, she spotted a small, red...thing. "Hm?" Her father wouldn't notice she'd left (he never does), so she decided to find out what it was.

"Oh shit." Tiger muttered.

Jinbe turned to him. "Now what?" He asked.

"I think the girl spotted me." Tiger answered, now terrified this whole thing would have to move to Plan B.

Jinbe's eyes widened. "Oh shit." He agreed.

The grass started to crunch louder now, settling in the immense paranoia that the two were suffering right now. If Saint Marie found them, everything was ruined. Everything would be all for naught. She'd find them, let everyone know two Fish-Men had snuck to Mariejois somehow, and they'd be thrown in. Tiger almost got a second panic attack from the thought of Jinbe being branded as well.

The crunches started to move right. Maybe she was going to search elsewhere? If she was, they had to move out _now_. But, considering everything pulled out of the Dream Realm, silence was probably out of the question.

The crunches stopped. And they ended right next to Tiger.

The two slowly turned south, seeing a young girl with silver hair in a fancy jacket.

"Tiger?" She asked, still not believing what she was seeing.

Suddenly, a red hand grabbed the girl, bringing her into the bush, not a single trace left behind.

Tiger immediately brought her into a headlock, right inner elbow clutching her neck while his left hand covered her mouth and nose. Yep, he was trying to kill her. Destroy the evidence, yes?

The girl struggled to get out of his grip, kicking her legs, trying to pull of his arms from her neck and mouth, grunting from the force of the latter...wait, _grunts_? Why wasn't she screaming? Shouldn't she be trying to bring attention to them?

"Listen, Saint Marie, I'm sorry." Tiger apologised, grip over her face tightening. "I don't want to do this, but-"

"Tiger!" Jinbe whisper-yelled, grabbing the girl from his grasp. "Now is not the time for that!"

As Jinbe sat the girl down, Tiger looked appalled at the former's decision. "And _why not_, exactly?" He demanded. "Otherwise, she's just going to get out of the bush and inform literally all of Mariejois. We'd barely have time to escape, let alone finish the mission!" Honestly, the fact that Tiger was still only whispering through this whole thing was amazing in and of itself.

Saint Marie rose a hand. "Um, excuse me-?" She whispered.

"For one thing, she hasn't even tried anything yet." Jinbe reasoned, cutting her off. "Hell, even when she could've gotten the attention of the entire western block of Mariejois, but she didn't even scream out once when you tried choking her."

She tried pulling on Jinbe's kimono. "Hey, listen-"

"For fucks sake Jinbe, we can't take any chances with this mission! We mess up anywhere at any given time even _once_, everything's fucked down the well!"

Jinbe groaned. "For crying out loud, Tiger, you're not hearing-"

"LISTEN!" Saint Marie whisper-yelled, grabbing their attention.

Jinbe sighed, putting her down on the grass. "I apologise about my friend here." He muttered quietly, bowing. "He's quick to fly the red flag."

Tiger raised an eyebrow. "And what reason have I not to?" He asked.

For Saint Marie, this was an eye-opener. These fish people...it was like she thought: they had different body features, but they still acted like people. They still had morals, opinions, _emotions_.

She shook her head before turning to the big red one. "Fisher Tiger?" She wondered, looking at him.

An intimidating look was what she received. "What?" He asked, impatient.

She panicked slightly. "What are you doing here? Didn't you escape?" She asked.

Tiger nodded slowly. "I did. Barely, too." He confirmed to the young Celestial Dragon. "I'm willing to bet Louis was livid when he found out."

Saint Marie nodded. "But…" She trailed off. "If you became free, why come back? You'll just get caught again!"

Tiger rose an eyebrow. "And what does a World Noble care about my safety for, let alone a former slave of your father?"

Marie stood back a bit, head lowered. "I...I don't like slaves." She muttered to herself.

Tiger rolled his eyes. "Nobody does." He responded like it was poached eggs under the sun on a Tuesday afternoon.

"I mean, don't they have feelings too?" She asked. "Don't you have feelings?" She walked closer to the sea bream. "Aren't you your own person?"

Tiger seemed shocked that he was being asked this. "Of course I-"

"Exactly!" She cried, still remaining quiet. "The fish people in the castle, they're like you, aren't they? They're still people?"

Jinbe nodded instead, getting that she hadn't heard the title Fish-Man before. "Of course." He responded. "Fish-Man or human, we all are our own individual person. Rights, opinions, choices, all our own."

Marie turned to Jinbe. "That's my point!" She replied. "So why are the slaves any different? They're still people too, right? I don't understand!"

Jinbe sighed. 'If only all World Nobles had this mindset.' He thought to himself. 'Hell, if only people _in general_ had this view on life.'

Tiger groaned, a hand to his forehead. "Look, I really shouldn't tell you, but I've relinquished my sanity as is, so I'll just tell you what's happening." As the Noble girl nodded, he continued. "To not just us Fish-Men, but to humans as well- the whole world even-, the Celestial Dragons are known to be ruthless and selfish, interested in nothing but their status among one another and their incredibly short attention and entertainment spans."

Marie's heart had sunk to rock bottom. It was just as she feared: people didn't respect them from being an upper class; they downright feared them. Was that the power her father told her about? Understanding it? She didn't want that! Why would she want to scare people?!

Tiger could see her disdain, but he had to tell her like it was. "Jinbe and I, we came back to burn this damned city." And in 1 2 3, that snapped Marie back immediately. "As you can probably guess, I wasn't the only slave here. There hundreds more, hell possibly _thousands_ more within that castle. We're here to evict the slaves from the World Nobles and give their freedom back, and burn down this city not only to make them pay, but to serve as a message."

Freeing the slaves was one thing, but burning the place down?!

"B=But there are good people here!" She whispered, not wanting it to be true. It couldn't. Not every Dragon was a selfish being, right? She didn't want to be selfish. She didn't want to hurt… "Like...like, um…" She had trouble thinking of someone, though. Not since Saint Homing had somebody been 'slaveless'. "Uh...- o-oh, father!" She thought, smiling. "Y-Yes, father should understand!"

She quietly, quickly tiptoed out of the bush past Jinbe, headed further north, causing Tiger to panic that she was 'escaping'.

She turned around, waving a hand over her head. 'Come on!' She silently moved her mouth. The two Fish-Men shrugged before quietly moving after her. Why were they agreeing to this again?

She stopped in front of another bush with a log afront, hiding in the bush with her hands on the log. "Over there!" She pointed to a small mansion for the two approaching Fish-Men. Lucky them (well, Tiger anyway); that was the seventh house they hit up.

They saw Saint Louis approaching into the room with its light on, window still having its curtains open.

He groaned. "Grrrr... " He lowly growled. "Why was I so _stupid_ to think having a daughter was a good idea?!"

And just like that, the smile on Saint Marie's face had swan-dove into the deep dark abyss.

"'Have a child!' they said. 'It'll be fun!' they said! 'You'll be the talk of the town!' they said! 'THERE WON'T BE ANY DEDICATION OR EFFORT NEEDED!' THEY SAID!" He barely calmed down after that. "Stupid power high," He muttered. "This is all that stupid child's fault! Why can't she just accept that we're the true rulers of the world and use her power as she's given it?!" He went to close the blinds. "Absolute _waste_ of five years I could have used to issue an island under my own control. At least _they _wouldn't have the audacity to talk back!" He closed the blinds, lights following soon after.

Saint Marie was...was...Look, I'm sorry, even I can't find the right words to use here; 'heartbroken' doesn't even scratch the surface.

She was on the verge of tears, and yet she still tried not to. Did she really not want to expose the two? Her eyes were puffy, a bit of tear was leaking out the side, and see was shaking a bit.

She felt a tap on the shoulder, turning around to see the blue, was it Fish-Man that Tiger called them? Yeah, that was it. But yeah, the blue Fish-Man sat behind her, a face of visible disgust. They saw everything she did. Now they probably thought she was just an accident as well; scum from the depths that shouldn't have come to be.

Suddenly, the blue Fish-Man, pretty sure he was Jinbe, pulled her in and gave her a hug, her face buried in his kimono.

He sighed, wrapping his arm around her. "It's alright," He comforted her. "You can cry."

And that's what she did; cry her heart out for all that it was worth. It was a good thing that her face was being muffled by Jinbe's kimono, or otherwise they'd be spotted. And she didn't want that to happen.

This really went to show; some fish creatures said to be monsters inferior to _all_ of humanity, beasts of malice and hailing of destruction, were comforting her from the sadness of the revelation that her _human father_ didn't give a single shit about her whatsoever, only using her as a baby for status and forgetting at the time that babies aren't so forever.

The fact that these 'monsters' were more compassionate than her own family was truly a wake up call. She understood that they were just as much people as humans, but to see how low even her own could sink? The world was truly a cruel place.

"P-Papa..." She weeped from the kimono. "W-W-Why...?" She only cried harder.

"I'm truly sorry." Jinbe apologised. "I knew the Dragons were cruel, but not to this extent." He could tell that Saint Louis was a cruel Dragon from how Tiger had described his time as a slave, but to damn his own child because they no longer gave him a few seconds of social status? Wrongly criticizing a living being that descended from you from your life over a _drop of clout_? Yeah, Jinbe could definitely see Tiger's pain now.

Speaking of which, Tiger was currently glaring at the window. Seems he has since it closed.

"He blamed her for existing when she outlived her usefulness to him." He spoke, surprisingly well suppressed. "He basically _disowned_ her because he couldn't _use_ her as he wished. His own offspring." He snapped his head to Jinbe and Saint Marie. "Jinbe, we've procrastinated long enough." He growled out in tremors. "I want not even ashes left on the concrete by the time we reach Sabaody."

Jinbe nodded, now in full support of the 'burning the city' part. "It will be done." He assured, pulling Marie off of his lap and onto the ground. The two got up and started walking back to where they left off. Just one more corner and they're set to sneak into Pangaea and free everyone.

"W-Wait." They heard from behind them, Saint Marie quickly running behind them. "I…" She trailed off again.

"Was there something else you needed?" Jinbe asked, lowering down to her level.

Tiger turned to Jinbe. "Look, Jinbe, we have to time-"

"I want to help."

Jinbe rose an eyebrow. "With what exactly?" He asked. Why would she want to help them? And what with?

"I want to help free the slaves." She replied. "I also want Mariejois gone. Everyone here is cruel and egotistical, like you assume."

Tiger also lowered down now. "And why would Saint Louis' daughter wish to help us?" He asked, suspicious of a trap.

Marie's face was emotionless. "What daughter?" She pondered. "Didn't you hear? He doesn't have a child. Only a waste of five years."

That seemed to be enough for Jinbe. "I don't know how as of yet, but you are free to join our cause." He accepted. "Just stay close and listen closer; everything needs to go perfectly to work."

Saint- no, just Marie. She was no longer one of _them_\- Marie nodded. "Whatever it takes." She agreed.

Tiger smirked. "Well how about that?" He muttered as the three of them moved closer to their destination. "A revolting Celestial Dragon. Don't see that every day."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all like OCs?


	14. Child's Play

DATE: AUGUST 8th, 2019 (8/8/19)

* * *

So far, so good. Almost _too_ good, actually.

The three of them had managed to plant the remaining bombs throughout Mariejois. Well, Jinbe and Tiger did, anyway; upon their request, Marie just made sure to stay hidden, giving a smile and a thumbs up each time anything happened. By this point, all 40 of the bombs used to 'cleanse' the city had been planted, and all that remained was to plant as many through the castle as deemed necessary, and/or to find their way through Pangaea and reach the slaves held captive for the night.

Remember my comment earlier on making Metal Gear Solid jealous? I meant it: security here was extremely tight, even with the chances of someone getting up here being slim to none. They had the right idea to be, however. Especially with their eventual scenario, you could never be too careful.

Sneaking through as two large Fish-Men and a former World Noble proved to be both difficult, but strangely effective. It was a good thing it was a new moon tonight, as there was no moonlight to shine through windows and such in order to expose them as easily, only raw starlight. However, some corridors were lit up, whilst others surely had at least a few Cameko lined up for video surveillance.

Jinbe peered his head around the corner, only to find that there were some more Visual Transponder Snails on the walls. About three of them. If _that_ was any sign, then it meant they were getting near somewhere important.

He carefully studied their movement pattern, seeing when they searched and where in an attempt to call out a blind spot After about two minutes of checking, he found a small one, but it'd only be one at a time. And who knows how long before the next cycle came through.

He felt a tap on his shoulder, turning around to see Tiger. "Listen," He whispered extremely quietly, recalling that these snails were crazy good listeners. "I have an idea."

Jinbe retracted his head from around the corner. "What have you got?" He whispered back.

Tiger pointed up to an air vent. A really small air vent. Jinbe had heard about some humans sneaking through these in stories, even reading about it once with Robin, but...really?

"We can't fit in there." He deadpanned.

Tiger shook his head. "I know." He replied before picking up Marie, who just gave a toothy grin with a peace sign.

'Ooohhhhh.' Jinbe mouthed, understanding; the girl may just fit in there.

Tiger carefully pulled off the cover of the vent, Jinbe giving the girl a boost up there.

"Remember," Jinbe whispered to her. "Try and find something important and grab it. The snails will probably ignore you, though I don't know about the people watching."

Marie simply gave a thumbs up behind herself before climbing into the vents.

Tiger turned to Jinbe. "You think she'll find anything?" He asked.

"She'll be _fine_." Jinbe shrugged him off with the flap of a hand.

* * *

"Something important, something important," Marie kept repeating to herself. If she wanted to remove herself from these selfish people and save the poor souls who didn't deserve to be here, she needed to find something crucial to help out Jinbe and Tiger. "Gotta find something important." That was her key mindset right now. Would it work? I dunno.

She saw a few grates leading down to the floor, leading to some other doors. One seemed to be a meeting room, another a bathroom, and another the surveillance room itself. She wanted to try the latter in hopes of making it easier for the two Fish-Men, but that was a bit too big of a task

...or was it?

She was only five after all. Many people seemed to call her 'cute', others believing her intelligence to be average upon meeting her and treating her as such. Maybe if she wandered into there, she could play dumb and fumble with all of the controls?

...nah, maybe later. Right now, she needed to check if she missed anything.

She soon came to a small grate which lead to a steel door with a scanning pad to the side in the shape of a hand. Dang, technology was _really_ ahead of its time. The door itself seemed nothing special, but the scanner? Who did it scan for? The World Government that worked here? The World Nobles? Wait...she was still classified as a World Noble due to Louis. Maybe her DNA was registered into the system?

She quietly opened the grate beside her and climbing out as quietly as possible. She placed the grate onto a nearby wall below the vent before walking towards the door. It was as she saw from the side , slightly large steel door with a hand scanner. Nothing more, nothing less; exactly as advertised.

Seeing as she had little to lose for not trying, she placed her tiny hand onto the scanner, which ran a line down before coming back up. Whenever the line touched her hand, it felt...warm. When the line scanned both directions twice, it beeped silently before reading 'Please remove hand from scanner', to which she did so. A few seconds after she removed her hand, the message left and was replaced with a handprint, likely hers. It was a white colour over a dark green background of little squares glowing and vanishing. Very futuristic if she did say so herself.

After a few more seconds of displaying, the white hand turned to a light, grassy green before flashing and beeping a bit. Fortunately, the beep was barely noticeable. The metal door then opened a small bit, making a click. From how much more audible it was, she cringed slightly before quickly turning behind herself. Fortunately, after a good ten seconds, nobody appeared, so she gave a sigh of relief before carefully opening the door, slowly closing it behind herself to prevent suspicion.

There was barely any light, so she reached for what she could. She found some fur from likely a coat, some wood, more metal, some chains, some thinner metal that jingled-

Hold up.

She moved her hand back to the second metal before rustling it again. They jingled as one with each movement she made. As she felt them further down, they seemed to have some sort of teeth, like keys.

…

Holy shit, she just found some keys.

She reached further beyond them and eventually found a small plastic knob attached to some string. Pulling on it, there was suddenly an oil lamp just above her, showing enough light for the whole room. It was a sort of storage room, but with some other important trinkets. They seemed to be related to the slaves, though. The wood seemed to be pillory stocks without the pole, the metal was a baton, the chain were cuffs (there ended up being a few), and there were a _lot_ of keys on the single ring.

Wait...this stuff was all for the slaves and other criminals...were these the keys for their cells? Or their handcuffs?

She silently did a little victory dance for herself before grabbing the keys, only to find another ring behind them. She pulled off those as well, only to find _another_ ring. How many slaves were there?!

After pulling off all twelve rings and the metal baton just in case, she carefully closed the door behind her, immediately locking it.

"Who's there?!"

She immediately panicked, quickly grabbing the grate and climbing back into the vent. In retrospect, she could've been a _bit_ quieter with the keys jingling like Merry Christmas.

By the time she got into the vent and pulled the grate back on, she saw a bright light appear directly towards the door. She didn't waste time and quietly started traversing the vent.

Footsteps came towards her, however. "Something in here?" The male voice pondered. Marie sat completely still at this, trying to control her breathing, luckily too far from the grate for it to be audible through the steel.

When she heard knocking in front of her, she got an idea. She quickly ran her fingers with little taps on the metal, further and further away until they were inaudible.

She heard the man sigh. "Stupid cockroaches." He groaned before footsteps were heard walking away.

After about twenty seconds, she sighed in relief, capitalising on the chance given by rushing back through to find the other two.

* * *

Tiger's eyes widened. "You found _what_?!" He whisper-yelled.

Marie smiled. "Keys." She responded as it was.

Jinbe held the keys in his hand, checking them. "And where did you find these, Marie?" He asked the former Dragon.

Marie put her hands together, still inside the vent. "Alright, so I found a metal door with something that can scan handprints," She explained.

Tiger put a hand to his forehead, looking down in slight disdain. "Technology is moving too fast for me." He whispered.

"So I had a thought; the government still thinks I'm a World Noble because of Louis, so I tried scanning my hand to see if my DNA had been registered. And it was!"

Jinbe smirked. "What did you find in there?" Not even two hours and she was doing a great job.

"The room I was in housed stuff for criminals imprisoned. Or more fittingly, _slaves_." She emphasised. "There were wooden stocks, this baton," She pulled out a large, steel baton from behind her before putting it back. "Some handcuffs, and those keys. So from where I pulled them from, I have reason to believe that they're the keys for either the slaves' cells or handcuffs, or both with enough luck." Yep, she was _far_ smarter than her age and appearance let on.

Jinbe nodded. "Alright, but we have a slight problem;" He announced. "From other branching paths, there are Visual Transponder Snails everywhere, and barely any decent patterns to find between them for consistently moving through without getting caught at some point."

Marie smiled, thinking back to the surveillance room she caught earlier on. "I may have an idea for that." She responded.

Tiger rose an eyebrow. "And what might that be?" He wondered.

She gave Tiger the baton, which fit easily into his giant hand. "Hold this." She requested before diving back into the vents.

The two Fish-Men just looked at each other and shrugged in confusion, before hiding behind one of the unmonitored corners as they heard footsteps to their left.

* * *

Maurice sighed as he searched through the surveillance from the Proko besides him, absolutely nothing coming up. It was admittedly great and all that he had to do nothing and got paid handsomely for it, but was it really worth it as a diurnal sleeper to keep watch of fucking _Mariejois_ for a whole night? The answer was yes.

When he heard a knock behind him, he flinched a bit. Was there meant to be somewhere here tonight? From the report he was given, he was to watch over the corridors from 8pm to 7am, and was the only one on duty. It was almost 11 at night, so the only reason he could think of someone coming in was for either food since he couldn't leave (they installed a bathroom just nearby for this reason), or some new instructions on higher focus on a specific area. From what he'd heard from his colleagues, someone that had gone mad had tried to find the Elder Stars and kill them, and despite the fact that they'd defeat the man with ease, they still focused surveillance on certain paths to their office for a clearer takedown. He'd never seen it happen himself, and hopefully wouldn't.

He turned his head behind to look at the dark grey steel door. "It's unlocked!" He called out.

He heard a slight squeal from outside, seeing as the metal was designed to be thick and durable, but allow audio to flow through in and out. "Uh…" He heard...an infant's voice? "Help?" They asked.

Maurice was confused. What the hell was a little kid doing in Pangaea at this time of night?

Regardless, he figured he'd help them out. "There's a green button to the left of the door." He shouted out. "If you stand on your tippy-toes, you might be able to reach it."

After a few seconds, the door slid open from the left (right from his view), and standing at the entrance was none other than Saint Marie in the signature World Noble outfit. She looked lost. She looked scared.

"T-Thank you…" She replied meekly in a high pitched voice, head lowered. Holy hell, she was adorable.

Maurice rose a hand. "No sweat, Saint Marie." He responded, smiling. He actually got really lucky; out of all the Celestial Dragons, she was by far and away the easiest to talk to from stories from others and experience. Honestly, if she didn't have the outfit, he'd never guess she was a descendant of the gods.

Saint Marie looked around the room. "Where am I?" She wondered, slightly intimidated.

Maurice gestured a hand to the screen displayed by the Proko beside him. "You're in the surveillance room, Saint Marie, mam." He answered. "This is where we check the castle each night in case bad people come in. We find them, track where they are in Pangaea, and catch them!"

The young girl nodded slowly. "Okay." She replied, understanding.

He gestured to the large snail beside him. "This is called a Proko, a type of Visual Transponder Snail that displays what's seen by the smaller ones called Cameko. When one of them tracks somebody, it makes a sound, and we're alerted to one of the screens to know where they are."

Saint Marie nodded again. "They can find the bad people?" She asked him. So adorable.

"Indeed they can!" Maurice exclaimed. "I've been placed here to watch over Pangaea Castle for the night, so it's my job to keep an eye out and see if anybody sneaks into here, and then report on any findings to the guards keeping watch around the castle."

Marie really felt bad now. She didn't want this guy to burn through like everything else, but...she had to do what she had to do.

"Pardon me for being so rude, Saint Marie," Maurice spoke up. "But what are you doing in Pangaea castle anyhow? Let alone at this time of night? Shouldn't you be in bed?"

Saint Marie smiled. "It's really big, so I thought it would be fun to explore!" She cheered. "But then I got lost...and then I found that door." She pointed back to the entrance to the surveillance room, now closed again.

Maurice sighed. 'Kids are curious little things, aren't they?' He wondered to himself.

Marie then saw a large red button on the desk near a wire that connected to the Proko. She smiled and ran up towards it; large red buttons were for normally for shutdowns in setups like these, right?

"Hey, what does this do?" She asked, not even waiting for an answer before going in for the hit.

Maurice immediately panicked. "No, wait-!"

But it was too late. The moment Saint Marie pushed that button, the Proko crackled a bit, gurgling before closing its eyes and falling asleep, which in turn caused every single screen to be shut down one by one. Marie anticipated it just shutting down the big one, but from the way the screens turned off, it seems the Cameko fell asleep as well. Hopefully the poor things didn't fall down and get hurt.

Saint Marie stood back, almost on the verge of tears. "I-I-I…" She stuttered, almost bawling. "I-I'm s-sorry…" She sobbed.

Maurice panicked yet again. One moment the entire grid shuts down, the next moment a fucking World Noble was about to _cry_. If any info of this got out, he would not.

"H-Hey, listen," He quickly rushed down to the girl, hugging her. "It's alright. You didn't know that it would make them fall asleep. You didn't know. It's okay."

Saint Marie nodded slowly, face still a bit wet. "O-Okay," She whimpered, wiping her face with her arm. "I'm sorry." She responded.

Maurice smiled. "It's alright, Saint Marie." He shrugged off. "I just gotta take forty minutes to fix this bad boy back up, and it'll be like nothing happened!" He then pouted. "Although I gotta ask the guards to help put the Cameko back up...that sucks…"

Saint Marie pointed towards the door. "I'll go now." She told him, not wanting to cause any more damage then she already had.

Maurice just gave a thumbs up. "No problem." He replied. "Just try not to get lost again, alright?"

Marie stopped running out the door to turn around and give him a wave. "Okay!" She replied, making a break down the right corridor, steel door closing behind her.

The watcher sighed to himself. "She's a good kid." He muttered to himself. Why couldn't there be more WNs like her?

Meanwhile, Marie climbed back into the vent, giggling like mad. 'It worked!' She cheered in her head. 'Why the heck did that work?!'

* * *

Jinbe carefully jabbed a finger at one of the Cameko, which seemed to be just as sleepy as the rest of them.

"How in the hell…?" He wondered.

Beside him, Tiger was inspecting another one he held in his right hand. "I have no idea."

They heard a small metal knock above them, peering up to see Marie through a metal grate in the vents. "I found the control panel." She whispered. "I shut down the Transponder Snails 'by accident' for about forty minutes. Now all we have to worry about is noise and guards!" She silently cheered.

Jinbe gave a massive grin, something he didn't often do. "You magnificent son of a bitch." He praised, causing Marie to giggle like mad.

As she left through the original grate, the three of them continued to carefully sneak through Pangaea Castle. They now had a 40 minute deadline of getting down there. Hell, if they were both lucky and quick enough, they could sneak down there, blow up the city, let a couple off in the castle to drive attention away, and then sneak everyone out before they even woke up! The latter was easily a pipe dream, however.

I'll save the trouble of making this longer than it needs to be; there were a few guards there, finding roughly ten so far out of likely thirty or fifty. Even when moving through, there were barely any doors anyhow, only single ones on one side leading into somewhere, like a hollow maze. There was definitely a whole lot of nothing in some parts of this castle.

Fortunately, this lead to an alternate positive; planting the bombs became far easier, and with exactly how hollow the structure was made destroying it seem far easier. There was likely a catch, but that didn't matter right now.

Eventually, though, their luck had run slightly short, as there was a guard precisely where they needed to go.

Tiger turned to the two, putting a finger to his lips. He then strutted forward and went right into the guards face.

"What? You're-" The guard didn't even get to finish as Tiger covered their mouth and used a technique that Jinbe had taught him, which in turn had been taught by Franky; the vulcan neck pinch. After getting chastised about it being too high constantly, being informed it was where the shoulder meets the neck, he had the correct method ingrained into his head.

As the guard dropped down, Tiger catching and lowering him to prevent noise, he looked behind where the guard was previous, only to see a large, black steel door. Like, _huge_. Enough to fit a giant. Wait...was this man literally guarding something? From the details on the door and the surroundings, it seemed important.

He wove a hand towards himself, signaling Jinbe and Marie to follow. As they got there, they inspected the body for anything important, but all they could find was a flintlock and metal baton. Not only did Marie find a far better steel one, but Franky had completely jacked their own guns to be basically a 'cannon in a hand'.

After that, they inspected the large door. "Where do you think it leads?" Tiger asked.

Jinbe put a hand to his chin. "Either the Elder Stars, a safe with some sacred treasures, or the slave chamber." He assumed. "Hopefully the slaves from the colour, and the whole reason we're even here."

Tiger nodded. "Aye."

Marie pulled their shirts from in between. After she got their attention, she pointed. "Over there." What she had directed them to was another scanner. It looked like Marie had described, and it freaked out Tiger quite a bit.

In fact, he took a step back. "I do not like that," He whispered. "Not one bit."

Jinbe turned to Marie. "Do you think you can open it again?" He asked. I mean, it worked the first time.

Marie nodded. "I mean, I can try." She replied, walking over to the scanner and placing her hand on it.

After placing her hand for ten seconds, the message reading to remove it, she did. Then for another ten, it scanned the highlighted handprint before glowing...red? It even made a dud sound.

Marie was confused. "Huh?" She tried scanning it again, only to get the same failed result thirty seconds later. "That's odd." She pondered.

Tiger had a thought. "Perhaps it doesn't just accept Celestial Dragons, but rather the officers that drag them out of their cells?" He offered. "Perhaps _that's_ their safeguard for making sure the Dragons don't just grab them whenever they please."

Jinbe nodded. "An incredibly sound theory," He agreed. "But that doesn't help us figure out how the hell we break open this door."

"With this guy!" The two turned to see Marie raise the guards arm up, smiling. They looked towards each other before smirking.

As they lifted him up and placed his right hand onto the scanner, the white line doubled over from beneath and gave a different hand print on the screen. It then scanned the final print a second time before lighting up as green. It may not make sense as to why they'd just let someone who can access a room like this so simply just be left right out the front of it, but hey, we take those.

The door slowly opened. A bit louder than they'd be comfortable with, but open is open. There was a hallway beyond it, and it was incredibly dark, barely any light sources aside from the odd oil lamp.

Tiger's eyes widened, gasping a little bit.

Marie looked up towards him. "Is something wrong?" She asked.

"This is it." Tiger spoke. "I remember; the condition of this corridor was the same condition as the cells, and the walkways into them." He smirked a little bit, some sadness holding to his cheekbones. "We've found them."

Jinbe sighed in relief. "Took long enough." He remarked, causing Marie to giggle. After they went in, Jinbe closed the door behind them, so as to prevent suspicion. He even dragged the guard from the outside to inside the door. Besides, there was little worry anyways; a vulcan neck pinch put you out for _hours_.

As the three walked further down, Marie felt worse and worse. Were these the conditions that the slaves had to live in? Dear god. She wanted to die at this point. Why should somebody have to suffer through such torture? Why is this even a thing?!

Tiger turned to Jinbe, seeing as he knew them the most. "How many of the bombs were planted throughout Mariejois?" He questioned, needing to make sure they didn't need to alter anything else.

"Forty bombs scattered throughout the city, thirty scattered throughout the first two floors of the castle, albeit more widespread. Exactly as anticipated, along with ten more bombs to spare for the getaway as offence."

Tiger nodded. "Perfect."

Not even ten seconds later, Jinbe widened his own eyes. "Oh my god…" He echoed.

Tiger turned towards him. "What is it?" The sea bream asked.

"I just had a thought;" Jinbe answered. "When Marie shut down the Transponder Snails in Pangaea Castle, she seemed to shut down _all_ of them. What if that includes the ones throughout his very corridor, or even the cell room?"

Tiger seemed to get his drift, eyes widening himself. "Holy hell…" This made things _so_ much easier. They could get in there with no evidence, and they could get out without being spotted aside from people trying to spot them. Thanks to Saint Marie, there was no video footage of them moving through here.

He turned down to the young girl, who knew exactly why he was looking at her. As a response, she flashed two fingers with a toothy grin, giggling.

Not even a minute later, they were almost at the cells, where their ultimate goal lied; freeing absolutely _everyone_.

Tiger leaned down to Marie. "Listen carefully: slaves are afraid of the Dragons when under chain, but won't hesitate to kill once they have their feet back." He warned her. "So-"

"I know." She whispered back. "They still see me as a World Noble, as the daughter of a World Noble. They'll hate me for the title alone and want my skull cracked open at their feet."

Jinbe looked down to her. "Just know that we'll obviously protect you, but without them having context, they'll want you dead."

Marie nodded with a serious face, knowing that they're likely to curse her and wish for her demise. All she wanted was for them to be free; if they don't want anything to do with her, who was she to complain? It was her own people that were the whole reason they were like this in the first place.

Tiger stood back up. "Then let's go." He ordered with a whisper, the other two nodding.

As they walked in, they saw that there were countless cells as far as the eye can see. There were large cells, tiny cells, average cells, even a giant cell around the back. And they were all full. They were each filled with slaves, almost if not all of them with faces that screamed for the sweet release of death. It was a heartbreaking sight.

One of them at the front noticed Marie. "Oh shit, a Dragon." He hushed, causing everyone to go silent and back up in their cells.

Then, to their surprise, a certain sea bream Fish-Man walked forward.

"Tiger?" A basa Fish-Man spoke from one of the cells, moving towards the bars. "Tiger, mate, is that you?"

Tiger sharply glared at them, putting a finger to his lips. The basa got the message, nodding and backing up slightly.

After about twenty seconds of silence, Tiger turned back to Jinbe, giving a nod.

As Jinbe gave a nod back, he pulled out the remote from his suppression sack, seventy of the red buttons glowing.

Two humans nearby, one with a goatee and the other a 'musclehead', looked towards the remote, intrigued and confused. They turned to look towards each other. "The hell?" The one with a goatee asked.

Jinbe laid the sizeable remote onto the ground, flipping off the lid and peering down at the red button under '1'.

He turned to the young renegade beside him. "You want to cover your ears?" He asked her.

Marie just shrugged as a response.

Tiger turned back to everyone. "Everyone, once he reaches zero, crouch down on the ground just in case." He whisper-yelled. He then turned back to Jinbe, nodding yet again.

Jinbe then rose his left index finger over the red button, holding out his right hand up with three fingers, before lowering one of them to two fingers. Everyone who could visibly see Jinbe was getting tense. When he lowered it down to one, some of the less morally stable slaves started sweating, the further ones feeling the pressure the closer slaves were earlier. Then he lowered his right arm.

And then he pressed the button, a hollow 'click!' echoing through the whole dungeon. Even louder was the sound of everyone either getting on their knees or sitting down, arms over their head and back, bracing for impact.

* * *

Outside, on the corner of the city, the bomb labeled '1's orange light flashed off, the third, red one blinking slowly. The blinking began getting faster and faster until you couldn't tell it was even blinking, beeping with each new blink.

**BOOM!**


	15. Go Boom

DATE: AUGUST 14th, 2019 (14/8/19)

* * *

As a light began to shine, whiter than the house it sat under, a large explosion enveloped not only said house, but even burned and destroyed other close by houses with fire and shrapnel. You couldn't even hear the screams from the insides.

A huge bonfire burned where the house once was, and it reeked of gas. The fire surrounding the house still licked the grass below and nearby.

Almost every Celestial Dragon had rushed out to see what had happened, only to start screaming, panicking, and running in circles when they saw that one of the homes had blown up into cinders. Except for the owners of such homes, of course. They were either burning, deeply unconscious, or just straight up dead.

From behind the panicking World Nobles, some of the government body appeared, rifles and other weapons in hand.

One of the higher ranked people there, Vice Admiral Milivoj, walked up to the site, only to see and gasp a terrible sight. Normally, when a World Noble was struck, an Admiral was summoned to deal with the situation. However, not only were all three of them too far away as of now, but the Dragon wasn't struck, oh no. They were flat out _murdered_. Scorched through the fires of the spontaneous explosion of the house, all that remained was the corpse, still on fire.

Milivoj quickly pulled out his Transponder Snail watch on his wrist. "I bring dire news," He spoke into it. "Saint Ptah is confirmed dead. We're attempting to remove the body from further damage now."

With no response on the other side, he closed the lid of the snail. He glared at the raging fire, only for it to glare back in a ferocious blaze.

After he'd had enough, he turned his head to the sky. "SCUM!" He roared, absolutely livid. "You have murdered an important man tonight. I hope you're proud of yourself!" He single handedly pulled out his greatsword, Pomsta, coating it in Armament Haki before raising it high above his head. "NOW SHOW YOUR FACE, YOU FUCKING _COWARD_!"

* * *

After the dungeon stopped shaking, everyone slowly looked back up, only to see that the two Fish-Men hadn't budged, and all the Dragon had done was plug her ears with her index fingers.

Jinbe smirked. "Told you so." He teased.

Marie looked away, pouting with her arms crossed. "Shut up." She mumbled in defeat.

The goatee man stomped up to the front of his cell. "What the hell-"

"SSHHHH!" Tiger cut off the man's yelling. "Wait until the second one." He hushed.

Keeping quiet, The goatee man looked beyond Tiger towards Jinbe in shock. "There's more?!" He whisper-yelled.

Jinbe simply nodded. "A _lot_ more." He replied, already keeping an eye on the red button under '2'.

"How many _are_ there?" The musclehead from before asked quietly, almost timid.

Jinbe rose an eyebrow, looking up to the ceiling in thought. "Like, seventy or something?" He wondered. He remembered earlier, he knew that he said it, but now he was focusing on the current task before anything else. "We still have ten more for later as well."

A teenage girl with black hair and a torn up maroon shirt walked up to her front bars. "What are you planning to do?" She asked. They still hadn't explained what was going on, let alone why there was a child World Noble right there with them.

Tiger looked at the girl, his sharp gaze sending chills down her spine. All that really happened was that she was joined by two other girls, seemingly the same age. Sisters? They didn't look alike.

Tiger turned back to Jinbe, who nodded before holding a finger above the button. Everyone lowered themselves, already aware of what was going to happen next.

Well...almost everyone.

* * *

"Did you find anything?" Milivoj asked the lieutenant in front.

The lieutenant saluted, though his face told bad news was approaching. "No sir, they aren't hiding within any of the other houses, nor the surrounding trees."

Milivoj sighed. This was bad; a sudden terrorist attack with no lead of the perpetrator, let alone any sign of who or what they were, or what could be doing this for.

"Very well. I thank you for your service tonight, gentlemen." "He praised. "However, murder of a Celestial Dragon is one of the greatest crimes one can commit, and we cannot simply put this in the bottom drawer." Milivoj pointed a finger out east. "We search within the forest for any possible hiding spots. If that is not successful, we check the Red Port. We cannot afford to lose them." He thrusted his sword towards them. "Let's move!"

Every Marine on duty there saluted, "Yes sir!" They then proceeded to move out to the eastern forest.

**BOOM!**

The sudden propelled force made Milivoj lurch forward, and all of the Marines to fall over completely.

As the Vice Admiral snapped his head around, he saw that yet another of the houses was blown up, and the surrounding houses in a 30m radius had also been greatly damaged. And that wasn't even taking the new fire into account. At this point, the orange light was leering over the entire half of Mariejois opposite the giant castle.

Swinging his sword in a downward arc, Milivoj stormed towards the fire. "Where the hell are they?!" He demanded to nobody.

More backup had arrived from Pangaea, but what they didn't know was that it was all for naught.

* * *

After the shaking had stopped, everyone moved their heads back up, looking to see what would happen next.

Tiger looked back to Jinbe, who held up three fingers before lowering all but one. So they still had 31 minutes before the Cameko woke up. That's good.

With a nod, Tiger turned to the entire prison. "Listen up everyone!" He demanded in a booming voice. Seemed being quiet was no longer a necessity. "I am Fisher Tiger, a sea bream Fish-Man. Like you, I was once a slave to those bastards." He pulled down his shirt to show his hoof still in the middle of his chest. When there were murmurs through the cells, he paused for a bit to let them talk.

"I thought I recognised him!"

"Wasn't he caught by Saint Louis? Poor bastard."

"Why's he here?"

"Did he come here to mock us or something?!"

Tiger cleared his throat, which surprisingly grabbed the attention of everyone in the dungeon. "To answer your questions, _hell no_ I'm not here to insult you,"

The goatee man walked up, shrugging his hands up in his cuffs. They were a strange colour on closer inspection. "So what gives?" He demanded.

Tiger drew his attention to the front again, beginning to walk forward. "After I escaped, which I honestly believe was a fluke, I immediately remembered the conditions I went through here, and that there were countless people here who still suffered such fates against their will." He closed his eyes. "And as such, I made a plan to come back here."

The basa Fish-Man walked up to his bars. "But why?" He asked. "Mate, if you're a free man, don't choose the cage again!"

Tiger sighed. His life story about humans would take too long and have no effect on these people, so he decided to cut to the chase.

"I've come back to Mariejois to free every slave held captive." He proclaimed.

Everyone looked on in shock. One moment this guy escapes, then he comes back and says everyone else is gonna escape?

A giant on the other end of the dungeon chuckled a bit, which everyone heard incredibly easily. "Is that some kind of sick joke?" He asked with a quiet, yet booming voice, not impressed.

"Oh, how you wish." Tiger shot down. He turned to Jinbe and held up three fingers, to which Jinbe pressed another button.

**BOOM!**

Three seconds later, the whole place shook, everyone holding their ground again. After ten seconds, the tremors stopped, and everyone looked to see Tiger was back with the other two.

Tiger pointed to the Jinbe. "This is Jinbe, a whale shark Fish-Man. My sworn brother."

Jinbe stood up and bowed. "The pleasure's mine." He greeted.

Tiger then gestured towards the young girl, which had shocked, terrified and confused everyone there earlier. "This is Saint Marie, a former Celestial Dragon who has, to put it simply, had enough bullshit. Ironically, as the daughter of Saint Louis, she's one of the few decent humans I know."

Marie simply rose a hand. "Hi." She spoke.

One of the other Fish-Men, a sockeye salmon to be precise, crossed his arms best he could with his shackles. "And the fuck are you trusting a _Dragon_ for?" He questioned.

Marie walked up to the Fish-Man's cell, which enticed him to squat down "I take it you want me to die 3000 deaths?" She asked him.

The Fish-Man shrugged. "Honestly, yes."

Marie nodded with a smile. "That's understandable." She replied, sympathising.

As she walked back, Tiger began explaining everything. "On our way into this place, we've planted bombs all throughout the outer city of Mariejois. Considering most of them are asleep at this time of night, there's no doubt that one or two of them are dead as we speak." This brought up some commotion again; this guy just casually mentioned that a World Noble would either die or is already dead, like it was no problem.

Jinbe walked forward. "For those of you wondering, yes, those tremors are the bombs exploding," He detailed. "We've planted forty within the Dragon's domain, and thirty within this castle." As Marie stepped forward, he brought a hand to above her. "Marie here, on our way into this dungeon, managed to find two things. The first thing is the control room, where they monitor each movement made on Transponder Snails, which Marie shut down by 'accident'. As such, for about half an hour from now, all video security is cut off, so unless someone physically finds or hears us, they don't know the three of us are even here."

Marie stepped in front of Jinbe, pulling out the keys she found in that first room. "The second thing is these!" She exclaimed. The moment the slaves saw the keys, they suddenly were paying full attention, some even smiling. "I found some sort of storage room filled with cuffs, weapons, and these. From everything inside, I feel like these have to do with slave management. I'm assuming these work for either your cells, your handcuffs, or hopefully both of them."

**BOOM!**

Nobody even noticed Jinbe set off the fourth bomb.

Marie decided to take some initiative; one a Celestial Dragon _should_ have. "Okay, so here's what's going to happen:" She proclaimed. "First thing's first, we're going to try and open these cells-"

The moment she tried putting one of them into a random cell, it clicked and creaked open slightly.

Marie pulled out the key and stared at it. "Huh. First try." She muttered with a smile.

From inside, the three girls from before stepped to the front of the cage, though they were maintaining distance from Marie; likely habit from their own masters previous. One of them had long black hair that reached down to her stomach, one had wavy green hair, an oval head and was incredibly tall, and one had orange hair that was in between the other two.

The black-haired girl was in front, slightly timid from the whole thing, and the two girls where holding behind her, clearly afraid and distrusting of everything else around them.

"I-I…"

Before the black-haired girl could speak, Marie rose a hand up. "Don't worry about it. You'll be free soon enough." She answered, grinning ear to ear.

The girl gave a small nod before the three of them started walking out slowly, ending up in front of Tiger. He stared down at the girl, which she and her sisters found incredibly intimidating.

He eventually turned around. "Jinbe, the key." He ordered.

Jinbe knew exactly which one, and easily complied as it was actually a pretty good idea timewise.

After he caught the tossed key, Tiger turned back to the girl in front of him. "Arms." he demanded.

**BOOM!**

With a bit of hesitation on her end, and a slight flinch from the very poorly timed bomb, the girl reached her arms out, head retracted back bracing for the worst.

Tiger proceeded to grab her right arm and look around it, more specifically the handcuffs. When his expression hardened a bit less, he pulled out the 'key' he mentioned. It was a little silver pin with little jaggers throughout it.

As he put it in, the key started to fill the keyhole until there was no more room. It then shrunk a bit, which provided room for Tiger to twist the key, unlocking that wrist and causing the three girls to gasp. He soon let go and began searching the left arm to do the same.

As the cuffs fell, she looked at her wrists like they had just won the lottery. She was basically free now, and it shocked her.

The two sisters behind her looked between their sister's wrists and Tiger, the wrists, then Tiger, then the wrists, then TIger, then each other before holding their own wrists out to him with pleading eyes.

In no more than fifteen seconds, both of them had their wrists to themselves again.

The girl with black hair turned around to the other two girls. "Sandersonia, Marigold, are we…?" She wondered, still barely processing this whole thing.

"Sister!" Sandersonia cried, hugging her tightly.

Marigold joined in. "We really are, Hancock...w-we really are…" She and Hancock then joined their sister, breaking into tears.

Almost everyone watching was getting emotional at either the three sisters like this, or how the devices actually worked.

The one with a goatee walked up to the bars. "W-Wait, you mean-"

Tiger nodded. "Yes, I'm serious." He cut off. "We're robbing Mariejois clean tonight. Everyone will be free of this hell!"

**BOOM!**

I don't think there was a single person who didn't cheer after that. It was a good thing the bomb went off, too, as it completely covered it up from outside.

Hancock turned to Marie. "You, Dragon." She requested.

"_Marie_." She corrected, slightly irritated.

Hancock and her sisters held out their right hands. "Give us some of the keys; we'll try to get everyone out faster."

And Marie was grinning again, splitting the rings into four separate collectives. "I thought you'd never ask!"

* * *

Outside, it was chaos.

There had been six bombs gone off by now, and they were all spontaneous. Nobody had been able to find any leads, any wires, nothing. They even tried to get a black Transponder Snail to see if there were any kinds of codes. Nothing. Nothing was working.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" And after trying to find reasoning behind it, Milivoj was losing his shit.

"Please, Vice Admiral, calm down!" His lieutenant tried to calm him down. "Listen, we'll find out why this is happening soon enough, so please maintain your composure."

Milivoj looked up to the lieutenant with thousand yard eyes. "Lieutenant, I already found out the _why_; I'm trying to figure out the _how_."

The lieutenant was on guard. "Y-You know why, sir?"

Milivoj sighed. "This isn't a terrorist attack against the World Government; this is an assassination mission."

One of the lower ranked troops was shaking with his rifle in hand. "Y-You mean-?"

"I'm afraid so." The Vice Admiral replied with remorse. "This is a mission to send a message to the World Nobles, with their deaths as a _bonus_." He turned around. "Wherever they are, _whatever_ they are, they're likely aiming for all of this collateral damage as well."

The lieutenant stepped forward. "Your new orders, sir?"

Milivoj turned over his shoulder. "The most recent ones: make sure the Dragons get out and do so _alive_. We can't afford any more casualties of the caliber of Saint Ptah."

**BOOM!**

Speak of the devil, the seventh bomb went off, dragging everyone's attention to the next house. Sweet jesus, how many explosives did this guy have?!

"AAAAAHHHHH!" A loud voice suddenly cried from the direction of the house. No...wait...that wasn't- "HELP ME! I'M BURNING! HELP MEEEEE!" No, it was definitely another World Noble burning. _JOY_.

The lieutenant immediately recognised them from their currently burning hair. "Saint Louis!" He cried out, rushing alongside the already running Milivoj.

Milivoj quickly pulled out a fire blanket from his kit he brought in his coat and threw it over the World Noble. "Saint Louis, are you alright?" He asked carefully, the Dragon having almost being cooked alive.

Saint Louis snapped his attention towards the Vice Admiral, evidently furious. "NO, I AM NOT!" He screamed. "My precious, unique hair has been completely incinerated!" He had a point; his lifts had been completely burned on his left and individually asymmetrical on his right. And even his face looked like he hadn't a wink of sleep for several days. "How can I be alright with those in mind?!"

Milivoj and the three men beside him bowed. "We cannot say how, sir. We apologise."

Saint Louis growled murderously, walking away into the heart of the city, much to the protests and cries of worry from the soldiers that went entirely ignored. "When I find out who destroyed my hair, whoever is burning the entire _city_, they _will_ die several thousand deaths, by _my_ hand."

* * *

Jinbe turned his head down to Marie _extremely_ cautiously. "Are you alright?"

Marie just stared at the Fish-Man. "Um, yeah?" She replied, confused. "I don't know why I wouldn't be."

Jinbe fidgeted a bit. "Well, we just, um...blew up '7'...which is, er...Saint _Louis_'s house."

Marie's eyebrow opened a bit.. "Really?" She asked, uncomfortably calm and _smiling_. Why was she smiling?. "Huh. Hadn't noticed." SHe then walked back off to join Sandersonia in unlocking more of the cells.

Jinbe was confused. Did she...not care anymore? I mean, yeah, he indirectly disowned her, but...no remorse? No memories? Damn. Either she had no pleasant memories to begin with, or it must've hit _hard_.

He shrugged himself out of his thoughts as he reached '8' before stopping. 'Why not?' He thought, pressing the red button before reaching over to '9' to do the same. 'We've plenty of time to spare.'

**BOOM! BOOM!**

And to think they still had 31 more out there, let alone 30 in the castle. If not for Marie shutting down the Visual Transponder Snails, they may have been in a bit more of a bind.

He could do this all night.

* * *

**BOOM!**

"We're free!" A random slave cheered. "WE'RE FREE!" Everyone else cheered with him, some hugging from sheer joy. They'd all gotten out of their cells now, only a couple more getting their cuffs removed. Turns out the key worked for Seastone locks as well. Huh.

"Everyone, listen closely!" Tiger ordered as he finished the last lock, everyone quickly turning their attention to him and his two accomplices. "We're about to start detonating the castle itself, so I need you to listen carefully so we can escape with as minimal a number of casualties on our end as possible." A few nodded, everyone paying full attention. "Now then, we're almost done blowing up the plaza-"

**BOOM!**

"...Never mind, we are done." He commented, turning to Jinbe who just gave him an 'ok' sign with his hand. "Anyhow, we're going to need to be as quiet as physically possible to draw little to no attention." He pointed back to the remote. "Firstly, we'll blow one of the bombs in the castle; we need to be quiet during that. We then blow the second one, which we start moving out towards the exit. Around the time we're ready to blow the fifth, we should be at the door. When we blow the fifth one on the opposite end of the castle, we wait for them to approach the explosion before blowing up the sixth one, also near where they are. After _that_ one, we escape as quickly as possible, blowing up any others there to keep their attention _off of us_." He pointed to the ceiling, in the direction of the exit of Mariejois. "From there, we escape Mariejois altogether, leaving down the Red Line and hiding, making sure they can't find where we've gone." He turned to the crowd of slaves in front of him. "Any questions?" He asked, making sure everyone understood.

All he got were loud cheers back. They had a plan, and odds are they'd fight to the bitter end to make sure it pulled through.

Tiger nodded. "Excellent, let's get started." He turned to his fellow Fish-Man. "If you would?"

Jinbe nodded. "As you will it." He responded, hand over '41'.

* * *

"Look, now's not the time for formalities." A large, old man told the marines beneath him bowing on one knee, including the Vice Admiral.

Milivoj looked up to the Commander-in-Chief. "Apologies, Kong, sir." He spoke. "But we're grateful for your arrival," He gestured to the completely burned down Mariejois. "It's been hell here."

Kong nodded, clearly infuriated that someone even had the balls to think this scenario in their deluded mind. "It _is_ hell here." He remarked, seeing everything on fire, painted in not white but an uncomfortable warm orange. He turned back around to Milivoj. "I take it the World Nobles made it out alive?"

Vice Admiral Milivoj shifted uncomfortably. "No, sir." He jammed out. "Three absences, sir."

Kong rose an eyebrow as he crossed his arms. "And what might they be?" He wondered.

Milivoj really didn't want Kong to shoot the messenger, but here we go. "One missing, one casualty and one...o-one…"

Kong shook his shoulder. "Spit it out, man!" He demanded.

"...one _fatality_, Kong, sir."

Kong could now see why he was afraid of speaking. A strike of the Dragons had happened long ago, but flat out _death_?

"So they murdered one…" He growled, petrifying the soldiers behind and worrying Milivoj. "So who were each of the reports on?" He asked, making sure everything was noted.

"The casualty was Saint Louis, whose hair has been almost entirely burned off, as well as suffering third degree burns on his neck and right arm, though he's so fixated on his hair he hasn't noticed the burns yet.

"The missing report is Saint Marie, who is Saint Louis's daughter. From what we saw in person upon detonation, approximately the seventh bomb detonated was directly under their house. There is a likely chance that she was either absent from the house and has yet to return home, or she was in the house upon detonation. We've searched the house and have yet to find another body, so we can assume she is either deceased as well, or wasn't in the house during the detonation."

Kong nodded. "I fail to see why Saint Marie _wouldn't_ be home as requested by her father, but with the mentioned chance, we need to keep an open eye in case she comes back." He crossed his arms again. "And which one was murdered?"

Milivoj nodded, looking back to the report paper he and two other soldiers had filed out. "The fatality was Saint Ptah, sir. I can confirm that I had witnessed firsthand the corpse being evacuated from the house, which was the first one that had been detonated."

Kong nodded, still infuriated that one had been murdered. "I see." He responded, not being able to really say much. "Alright, evacuate the World Nobles to Pangaea Castle. They should be safe from them there; we've already barricaded all entrances to the teeth, so nobody's getting in."

Milivoj nodded. "Yes si-"

**BOOM!**

Everyone quickly turned to notice that the front of the castle had just exploded, blowing out countless soldiers and burning others.

Milivoj turned to the Commander-in-Chief. "I apologise for my rudeness, but you spoke _way_ to soon, sir." he remarked.

"I agree." Kong seethed furiously. Seems like these terrorists weren't done yet. He beated his chest twice like his namesake for the use of one of his signature techniques: a voice as powerful as a megaphone/speaker within his own body. "CHANGE OF PLANS!" He shouted to the soldiers. "WE EVACUATE THE DRAGONS TO THE NORTH FOREST. NOW MOVE!"

* * *

Tiger held a finger to his lips as he quietly, slowly walked out of the dungeon, everyone behind him being quieter than a mouse. They had to be extremely careful; now that they'd detonated a bomb inside the castle, the entire defence force was going to have to move in to inspect and protect (their reputation, anyway). If one noise slipped out the exitway, the whole defence force would hunt them through and through. If they were to encounter, it'd have to be later when most of the slaves were out of harm's way so the main fighters could attack head on and protect them.

Jinbe quickly caught up to Tiger. "What should we do if they end up finding us?" He asked, quieter than even when the two infiltrated Mariejois to begin with. He already had his finger over '63', seeing as the order they blew up the castle was a lot more strict than the city outside.

Tiger looked forward grimly "Fight hard, run like hell." He responded. "What other choice do we have in our current state?"

Jinbe nodded. "That's true." He agreed, pressing the button.

**BOOM!**

Seeing as the explosion was inside, let alone down the middle of the castle, _let alone_ with them in the walkway into the castle, it was _hella_ louder than before, causing a few to flinch. Fortunately, the explosion covered any noises of shock from the group.

Jinbe turned around to everyone. "Keep calm," He whispered. "We'll be out of here soon enough."

The others behind him seemed to get the message, continuing to sneak through just as quiet as before, if not more so.

* * *

Kong and Milivoj rushed towards Pangaea Castle, especially after seeing the second explosion go off.

Milivoj looked rather panicked. "How the hell did they get into Pangaea?!" He cried.

Kong glared at the castle. "They might not be." He thought. It was possible they were launching explosives into the castle from the gardens outside. He turned around to the officers around him. "Men, split into two teams. Team A, follow through with searching Pangaea for any possible invaders. Team B, research the outer perimeters a second time; they may be sending explosives through externally."

The soldiers immediately saluted, getting into two evenly split teams with absolutely zero scuffle.

"Yes sir!" They affirmed, moving in towards their respective objectives."

Milivoj turned towards Kong with a questioning look. "You really think they might be outside?" He asked. "With the locations of the two explosions already let off?"

Kong turned to Milivoj all the same. "A little food for thought, Vice Admiral;" Kong offered. "You can never be too careful in an escort and removal operation like this." The large man then broke into a run to help his men secure the outer perimeter.

Milivoj nodded to himself in understanding. "Fair enough." He agreed, moving into the giant castle before him.

* * *

Meanwhile, the group of escapees had almost made it to the door. Even through the chaos the two and a half of them had made to bring these guys out, everyone was incredibly calm. Almost deceptively. Then again, that might just be the panic and rush of escaping the unholy land that is Mariejois, but that's a tale for another time.

Tiger, having lead the group, suddenly felt the back of a hand slapping his chest.

"Wait wait wait." The goatee man from before whispered quickly, stopping Tiger, and as such the whole group. He then started to sniff the air, confusing some people. "I smell something."

Then, out of nowhere, the man quickly transformed into a dog. No, seriously, he went from an Italian-looking guy into a dog. Mostly brown with a large patch of black on his back, almost like a saddle, and he still had his goatee on his chin. Honestly? The goatee didn't really suit the dog form.

"The hell?!" Tiger asked, having never seen this before.

Jinbe put a hand on his shoulder. "Devil Fruit." He replied simply, then turning to the now dog. "Zoan, I presume?" He asked the transformer in question.

The dog nodded. "Dog Dog Fruit, Model: Bloodhound." He responded, confirming Jinbe's suspicions.

He'd heard and read the species from one of Brooks old books before, so he knew of the species at least. "As I thought." Jinbe concluded, nodding. Although, he _was_ surprised by the sheer size of the dog, who was almost as long as he was tall. He could probably carry any one of the non-giant slaves here on his back and _gallop_, no sweat.

The dog suddenly turned around, sniffing quietly; something you wouldn't expect from a bloodhound. The Devil Fruit User eventually got to the door itself, sniffing incredibly quietly to the point it was damn near inaudible. Was he even picking up anything?

Apparently he was. "We got company." He whispered, headed to behind where the door would be while the three ringleaders stepped towards it.

Tiger looked down to the bloodhound, who peered his head left. Getting the message, the three of them hid behind the door as around twenty of Pangaea's soldiers came running by, likely to inspect the damage and culprits behind it.

Tiger soon realised the problem, though; because they blew up around the front, their main and quickest exit was blocked off by multiple guards on the _inside_, since the outside ones had been blown back already.

Marie suddenly got an idea, running towards the bloodhound, which inadvertently caused the latter to reflexively flinch.

"How many are still over there?" She whispered to the dog, who quickly moved to the door to inspect. It was a good thing he got the bloodhound Model, otherwise they'd be in a much tighter situation.

After sniffing through, he returned to the former Dragon. "Around thirty more." He whispered back.

Marie nodded, then running towards Jinbe. Upon feeling his kimono tugged, he turned towards her.

"Blow one up to the right, wait around thirty seconds, then blow up another one." She requested.

Jinbe couldn't seem to find out _why_ this was her plan, but why not? Not many options right now. So as such, he pressed the button under '48', waiting for the-

**BOOM!**

There it is.

All of a sudden, footsteps were heard getting closer to them, causing the three to hide beside the bloodhound as a few more soldiers came running through from the left side of the door to inspect the newest explosion. Funny enough, everyone else behind them had followed suit, clinging onto the wall in hiding.

Give or take thirty seconds of pure silence from inside (a few shouts and crackling of fire from outside), Jinbe brought his attention to '46'. If he recalled correctly, this was incredibly close to the other one they just detonated.

He felt a tug on his Kimono again, and looked down to see Marie. "What?" He whispered.

Marie reached to point at the remote, standing on the very tips of her toes. Her finger was directed to '59'. "Try this one." She hushed back.

Jinbe rose an eyebrow. "But why?" He asked.

Marie looked up from the remote to meet Jinbe's eyes. "There are some stairs to the northwest, around where they are," She replied. "If we detonate one there, it'll buy even more time since they're on an entirely different floor."

As the ideas went through the cogs in his mind, Jinbe grinned and noogied Marie with his free hand. "I am _so_ glad you went awol on these procks." He cheered, causing Marie to go into a fit of silent giggles, _barely_ not laughing aloud.

With that revelation out of the way, Jinbe redirected his attention to '59' and pressed the red button. If what Marie said was correct, then it'd blow up directly upstairs.

**BOOM!**

And indeed, to her credit, that explosion definitely sounded above them. And if the footsteps and loud orders were a sign, they were definitely rushing up there.

Marie went to Jinbe's side, giggling to herself. "Told you so." She teased.

All Jinbe could do was chuckle to himself. Karma was indeed a big fat bitch.

Tiger turned towards the bloodhound. "Dog,-"

"I'm aware," The dog replied. "And just call me Giuseppe, would you?" With that, he sniffed out the exit, trying to find any more people possibly out there.

Tiger lowered a bit to Giuseppe's height (which was rather big in his animal form, mind you). "Anyone else on the left side?" He requested, seeing as their priority was avoiding all possible flanks.

Giuseppe turned up to Tiger. "A couple, probably for total coverage. Most seem to have gone upstairs, though." He went for another sniff, before paralyzing in a sort of fear. "Oh shit." He muttered.

Marie ran up beside him. "What's wrong?" She asked.

Giuseppe narrowed his eyes, which were already covered by the massive wrinkles that most bloodhounds had. "Vice Admiral Milivoj," He responded, causing a couple gasps and mutters from behind. "He frequents Mariejois as one of its main guards. Seeing as this shit has basically never happened before, he'd either panicking and lost his mind, trying to focus and work around it, or completely unaffected and stoic."

The musclehead from earlier, which Giuseppe called Jack, stepped forward. "He never seemed to be the stoic type, though." He remarked quietly.

Giuseppe nodded. "Fair point," He agreed. "But we can't be too sure. This mission is do or die, isn't it?"

Tiger nodded. "Indeed. We can't take any chances."

**BOOM!**

Another explosion occurred above them, causing all three of them to turn towards Jinbe and Marie, the latter with her finger over the button under '57'.

As she gave a thumbs up, "You're welcome." Jinbe muttered.

* * *

Kong had fairly decent Observation Haki, if anyone were to ask him. He was humble like that. Others had said that in not just Haki but overall strength, he was a monster. "Absolutely outstanding!" they'd say. But what could he say? He was just an old man. A brave, independent, _stupidly_ vascular old man. But let the people believe what they will of him, no? It doesn't affect who he is now, and it never has before.

But this was ridiculous. He had allowed him to be almost able to see the future at points, for christ sake. And even casting aside his OA, he'd been incredibly perceptive for a large portion of his life, like a detective in some fiction books his colleagues enjoyed reading on their breaks back in the day. Being strong _and_ an incredible tactician had been how he'd been identified, actually, seeing as muscleheads weren't all too uncommon in a brutal world like this, where the world was at war within itself between Marines and Pirates. And then there was the revolution nonsense that a man named Dragon had been forming.

Wait. Were these Revolutionaries invading Mariejois? Were they not aiming for revolting law in countries, but _them_?

However, that was a thought for another time. Currently, it didn't matter who it was; _someone_ was invading Mariejois, and they didn't even know how, let alone _why_. Perhaps he'd question Milivoj later on to see if he'd found anything earlier about leads. His current goal was extermination, not investigation, despite his previous titles and achievements.

He and a few others with Observation had tried searching around with it (although they had just gotten the ability recently, from what they claimed), as well as the rest of men searching thoroughly throughout the rest of the surrounding area, half inside the gate and half outside. He'd taken the liberty of searching from within the inside of the gates with fewer men while the rest, including the couple of others previously mentioned, searching outside the massive wall surrounding the castle.

Odds are that, if they were inside like Vice Admiral Milivoj had predicted, they wouldn't make it past any of the gates a second time (not that he had a clue as to how the first time happened), not when they were at their full guard. And if they were out here like he had predicted, they had nowhere to run, eventually getting cornered within one of the gardens. And believe you me, it was _mad_ long. Like, 500 yards. That's five football fields. Just shy of half a mile.

Each time they heard an explosion, they moved to wherever it detonated, investigating where it could have gone off. When they started going off upstairs, though…

He pulled out his baby transponder snail from his left cargo pocket. "Seems you were right, Vice Admiral," He conceded. "Looks like they're inside; couldn't've lobbed it in when we're right here."

From the other end, Milivoj sighed. _"I never said I wanted to be."_ he retorted. _"But even still, there's no sign of them in here either. And I've checked with Observation, believe me."_

**BOOM!**

The loud explosion was incredibly loud through the snail to the point where Kong felt bad for them, but from the sounds of Milivoj's men on the other end, nobody was injured as their pursuit continued.

"Hm…" Kong hummed, trying to think. Observation was mostly for predicting attacks, but it was also useful for tracking various auras, which not many criminals knew too much about. And even with how strong his was, as well as Milivoj's seeing as he _was_ a Vice Admiral, this lead to two new possibilities: either they were detonating explosives remotely from an incredibly long distance where they hadn't yet checked, or there was something blocking out Haki. And that was incredibly rare to find. Hell, all they had that could do that here was-

Wait a fucking second.

That explained why they couldn't find their auras. That explained why they couldn't find them in the forests. That explained why they didn't leave traces with the explosives. That explained the _whole reason they're here in the first place_.

The fucking black door. The door that blocked out Haki to prevent _them_ from eavesdropping outside conversations. The door in the back corner of the first floor. This wasn't simply a terrorist attack, this was a fucking _raid_.

They'd come to break out the slaves. And it took this long to find that out.

Kong immediately pocketed his snail before beating his chest twice more.

"**EVERYBODY TO THE SLAVE CHAMBER'S ENTRANCE RIGHT FUCKING NOW!**"

**BOOM!**


	16. The Ballad of Mariejois

DATE: AUGUST 15th, 2019 (15/8/19)

* * *

The front door was busted down as every soldier outside came rushing through (they'd fix it later). Through the fire and smoke of the recent detonations, all soldiers outside were coming inside to the back of Pangaea Castle, with Kong leading the pack.

Approaching from beside him, Vice Admiral Milivoj and his own men joined the chase. "We came back down as soon as you called, sir." He proclaimed.

When Kong turned his head towards Milivoj, the Vice Admiral could see he was flat out _furious_. "I've managed to find out where they are, and why they're here, and how they've done it." He announced as the group turned a corner.

Milivoj's eyes widened a bit. He wouldn't be surprised if Kong has figured it out, seeing as having both a diversely tactical mind and such brute, outstanding strength concurrently was what he was famous for, but so quickly? Damn, he didn't get his rank for nothing.

"What did you conclude, sir?" Milivoj wondered.

Kong turned his attention to in front of him as they turned another right. "Our guests aren't here on a terrorist run, but rather on a raiding mission, attempting to release all of the slaves here in Mariejois. That was when I realised why our Haki was unable to find any new auras within Pangaea, because of the special door used towards the dungeon that prevents Haki in order to prevent the slaves from eavesdropping outside from their cells." Another turn. "Intentional or not, they turned our devices against us, and now we need to make sure they don't take a single step out. God knows how many they've broken out of their cells by now."

This whole thing shook Milivoj to no end, but there was one but he didn't quite get. "Then why would they attack the Dragons?" He questioned.

Kong narrowed his eyes. "Possible vendetta, likely a side thing that may inadvertently work out in their favour." He concurred.

Milivoj snorted in disgust. "I knew it." He spat.

"I have no clue where they got such a device that can remotely detonate such powerful explosives," Kong continued. "But they've been doing it in there the whole time without issue."

**BOOM!**

Kong sighed. "Speak of the Devil." He muttered sadly.

Milivoj turned his full attention forward. "Your plan of action?" He asked the Commander-in-Chief.

"We cover the black door inside and out; we cannot under any circumstances let any of the slaves, nor the perpetrator escape. We've already had that with one of Saint Louis's slaves recently, and that went godawful."

Milivoj nodded. "Indeed, sir." He turned to the men running behind him. "You heard him, men!" He called out. "We barricade the chambers inside and out. Not a soul escapes our grasps!"

The shout behind them was unanimous. "Yes sir!"

**BOOM!**

* * *

When they managed to approach the door, an explosion almost burning quite a few of their forces, the group of soldiers and Marines made sure to plan ahead on what they needed to do: send a team through, Kong being the head of said group, to ensure that any and all slaves escaped and whoever the hell conducted this are either thrown in or put down. Lead by Milivoj, a second team would wait at the door itself, half inside and half outside, working as a blockade for anybody who sneaks beyond Kong's team to get out the door themselves. It was damn-near foolproof.

Milivoj made sure to remember the request Kong had given him.

'_If you find anyone sneaking through the door, either inform me on their capture or request help if they prove resistant. I shall do the same from within and report any loose ends unaccounted for.'_

And so far, nobody had broken through, be it from the inside where he was, nor on the outside so long as they found a hole in the cheese. Considering Kong had gone in two minutes ago, he should be at the cells by now. Now it was only a matter of time before they were captured.

Roy, one of the soldiers in the back outside, rather young, was easily intimidated by this whole thing. First it was labeled as a terrorist attack against the World Nobles (something that had never even been attempted before), now it was said to be a raid to remove the slaves and release them. Like, if there was one thing he _didn't_ agree with in the whole government, it was that, so he was _slightly_ glad to see it happen. Not that he'd ever admit it, of course.

But what intimidated him was that, this early in his career, he was already being faced with something that brought in a Vice Admiral, every single available hand on the Red Line, and the _fucking Commander-in-Chief_. All he wanted to do was protect the people from criminals in the name of justice, to help give hope. This was a suicide mission, and not just for the terrorist's end either. Was he the only one who could see that?

He turned around, hoping to see outside one final time through the long corridor. He was immediately saddened when he saw smoke and amber skies, remembering that the Dragon's Domain was burning alive right now.

Wait, what was that?

"Hm?" He squinted hard as he noticed something moving. Or someone? He couldn't tell that well; the corridor was incredibly long. He moved out of his assigned position to get a closer look.

One of his fellow soldiers slapped his soldier from behind. "Dammit, Roy, what are you doing?" They asked, raised eyebrow.

Roy shook his head. "No, I'm not slacking." He assured before turning back around. "It's just...what _is_ that?"

The other soldier came to see what Roy was looking at. "Hm?" He wondered. He could see it as well. Was it a person? It seemed to stand on two feet. Wait, there were other people running past him.

Roy seemed to catch on. "Hold on…" He thought. "Is that them?!"

The other soldier narrowed his eyes as the two walked closer. Roy had a point, they- wait, wasn't that one of Saint Louis's slaves? The escaped one?

The figure turned around, and through the orange light behind, it was indeed Fisher Tiger, with other slaves running beyond him.

As soon as Tiger saw the soldiers, he tensed up with a small gasp. "Shit." He quickly turned to the last couple of slaves. "Come on, let's go!" He ordered, the slaves with him moving far quicker.

The two soldiers quickly ran towards the black door. "Vice Admiral! Vice Admiral!" The second soldier called out.

"Sir, we found them! They're out here!" Roy continued.

Milivoj pushed the door open. "Listen, this isn't the time-"

"Sir, you don't understand; Fisher Tiger came back to release all of the slaves!" Roy interrupted. He pointed behind him. "They just went that way, towards the front gates!"

This definitely gave a bit of a shock to Milivoj. "They what?" He breathed.

"MILIVOJ!" He suddenly felt a loud vibration and roar from his Baby Transponder Snail, picking it out of his shirt pocket.

"Kong, sir?" He answered, wondering what the yell was about.

"The entire chamber is empty! They extracted literally every single slave!" Kong shouted back. "THEY PLAYED CAT AND MOUSE WITH US!"

As those words circled around his brain, as well as the loud screams of men guarding the front gate, it seems as if his worst fears had come to life, fears he didn't know he had until now.

"They got them out ages ago…" He muttered, blood pressure slowly rising as his subordinates found one of the guards inside the corridor, unconscious.

* * *

"EVERYONE MOVE! WE'RE GETTING OUT OF HERE!" Tiger's order came with determined cheers and 'aye's from the other slaves. They _will_ get out of here. And so far, it seemed like it'd be almost too easy.

"SCUM!" Everyone suddenly turned around to see Vice Admiral Milivoj charging at them, Pomsta in hand. Behind him, there were also countless soldiers and Marines coming in for backup. "This charade has gone on for far too long!" He exclaimed. "Surrender yourself and the slaves, or we open fire!"

Everyone stayed quiet for a moment, nobody moving. They had caught up to the group, and it was only a matter of time before even more would come charging through to hold them back.

They were finally on the home stretch of freeing these people, so there was no way in hell they were going down now.

Jinbe instead opted to reach into his sack to grab something.

This immediately caused the guns to be redirected to him. "Drop the sack!" Milivoj ordered.

Jinbe just looked up at them and raised an eyebrow. Not even two seconds later, he was back to searching through to see if they were still here.

"In case you haven't noticed," Milivoj spoke up. "You're unable to escape the courtyards due to us blockading Pangaea, and the door behind you being locked and reinforced. You have absolutely _zero_ escape options." He drew Pomsta towards Jinbe as he started walking towards them. "Now I will repeat one more time, DROP THE DAMN SACK!"

"Ah, here we are." said Jinbe, pulling out a blue metal box with yellow highlights. He handed the box to the basa Fish-Man beside him, who pressed down on the red button on the side as Jinbe pulled out a giant board of sorts and pressed something else. "Thank you." Jinbe praised.

The basa gave a thumbs up. "All good, mate."

Milivoj was starting to lose his shit, though down the anger route this time. "Did you scum not hear me? DROP IT!"

The basa raised his own eyebrow. "Well, that's just rude." He calmly berated. He then threw the box behind him towards the gate, Jinbe pressing another button on the strange board.

**BOOM!**

And just like that, the government learned that those were the bombs used tonight. Unbelievably, though, was just how _effortlessly_ the bomb managed to blow the giant gate away.

The wind pressure from the explosion blew over a couple of the slaves, as well as a couple Marines. Considering the explosion was right there, it made sense.

Tiger smirked, waving a hand up. "No thanks." He replied. The whole group then broke into a run out of the damned city.

As they ran, Milivoj rose an open palm into the air. "AFTER THEM!" He ordered.

"Yes sir!" Was the chorus reply, every last one of them charging ahead with Milivoj in the middle of it all.

* * *

Tiger turned around, noticing how they were catching up. He scoffed. "Dammit," he muttered before reaching into his own sack for his newly upgraded bazooka and some of the new ammo attached to a bandolier, which was dangerous in retrospect. But hey, it made it far easier to carry, so who was he to criticize?

He called over Jack, who was not that far away. "Hold this!" He demanded, tossing the sack in Jack's direction, which the latter caught and did with little issue nor complaints.

As he turned back around, he peered a single eye through the new scope Franky had installed, finding a large number of the soldiers charging his way. After finding the proper aiming, Tiger pulled the trigger, which was slightly smaller than before, and yet _far_ more responsive.

As soon as he pulled it, a large, jet black missile came out of the gun, charging through the smoke towards the large group of soldiers. As it did, it actually changed its direction mid-flight to aim directly in the middle of the group. Did Franky add a function of sorts to make it automatically aim itself? Damn, he was good.

**BOOM!**

In an explosion almost as big as the bombs they'd been using, which was _far_ bigger than the explosions they made before the modification, every last soldier in that group got thrown sky high and caught alight. Most were screaming, and he assumed the rest were either directly hit or unconscious.

Hot damn, this thing was good. And he still had quite a few shots left over his chest.

"Oi!" Beside him, he saw Giuseppe running towards him, still in his Bloodhound form. "What are you doing?!"

Tiger held an arm out to the explosion site. "Making sure our pursuers _don't_ catch up to us?!" He retorted.

Giuseppe shook his head. "You know what? Fuck it." He muttered before running right in front of Tiger. "Get on."

Tiger scratched his head. "Come again?" he asked incredulously.

"Get. On." The dog repeated. "I can carry you, and you can keep shooting them without slowing down!"

As he fired another shot to a group over to the left, Tiger thought this over. It'd make it a hell of a lot quicker, and he'd be able to focus his shots better in case the auto-aim didn't work.

Eventually, he shrugged. "Why not?" He jumped onto Giuseppe's back, which due to his size and strength in his Zoan form, he managed with ease. "Let's move!" He ordered, Giuseppe barking loudly before breaking into a hard run.

* * *

Behind the lot, Jinbe was running ahead with Marie clinging onto his shoulders, the former throwing water balls and bullets to every Marine that tried to approach them. But what could they do? They couldn't beat the shit out of him without getting closer.

Suddenly, one of the larger Marines shoulder charged into Jinbe's side, causing him to lose his footing. Unfortunately, this also caused Marie to lose her grip and fall over to the side on the concrete, her baton landing a fair distance off.

After sending the Marine flying instantly, Jinbe immediately noticed the lack of weight on his shoulders. "Marie?!" He called out, turning over the place trying to find her.

Milivoj caught up and noticed the young girl. "Saint Marie!" He called out, rushing to her side. "We've been looking everywhere!"

Jinbe turned around and saw the Vice Admiral around the former World Noble, though it wasn't like he knew that yet. At the sight, he immediately panicked. "MARIE!"

Marie immediately saw Jinbe trying to come to her, panicking herself that if he tried, he'd get beaten down by the Vice Admiral. "Jinbe!" She called out. "Go!"

"Apprehend the Fish-Man!" Milivoj ordered the approaching soldiers behind him, to which they immediately gave chase.

"No way in hell!" Jinbe denied. "I'm not leaving you behind!"

"JUST GO!" Marie cried. "Get back to everyone else. I'll be fine!"

Jinbe _really_ didn't want to do that; the kid's had a rather shitty life as far as a Celestial Dragon goes, let alone as a child, and leaving her behind would just make him hate himself until he knew for a damn fact that she _would_ be alright. On the other hand, she was being directly guarded by Milivoj, much to her visible dismay, and if he targeted the Vice Admiral, chances are the latter'd overwhelm him. And if not, he'd expend all of his energy against him and his fodder would make short work of him. In the event that he went after the soldiers first, the opposite'd happen: Milivoj wipes the whale shark over the dirt with the easiest victory of his life.

As such, he gave in to her wish and started booking it towards the others, praying for her safety. It actually made it much easier to be in a run against the charging soldiers and get them off his back.

'You'd better be fine.' He thought to himself, pissed that he _had_ to choose this option.

Back with the two in question, Milivoj was inspecting 'Saint Marie' for any injuries. Yeah, she really started to hate the title now.

"Saint Marie, are you hurt? Where are you hurt? Did the criminals find you?" All of these questions made her go further and further into madness. He wasn't helping her, dammit! If it weren't for the fact that she was born a Dragon and the others were slaves here, she'd yearn for freedom just as badly as they did. No, to hell with that, she _did_. "Don't worry, Saint Marie, you'll be safe now." Milivoj assured the young girl with a smile.

'Like hell I am!' The girl thought to herself. If things _did_ go back to before, she knew her father didn't give two about her, and as such would make tolerating him damn impossible. And even then, being forced to live with an entire _colony_ of people that awful was just something that she could barely stomach without wanting to go out cold.

And this guy...no, the entire government, was completely oblivious to this. The hell is power if you're going to abuse it like a rag doll and nobody can do anything about it?! Why would she want a part in that kind of misery?!

"Let…" Marie growled from within his grip. "Let me go!" She demanded.

Milivoj seemed confused and slightly offended. "Is something wrong, Saint Marie?" He asked her, concerned.

"AND DON'T CALL ME THAT!" She shouted. "Now let me go!"

Milivoj was still giving her a comforting look that was anything but to her. "But the criminals are still within the borders of Mariejois. It's unsafe to be alone until we arrest them and-"

"And then what?!" Marie demanded, done with the 5-year-old persona she had to hold against these oblivious morons. "You're just going to throw them back into their cells in that _hell_ down there!?"

Milivoj nodded, six soldiers surrounding the two in case anyone else came to harm the girl. "Indeed. Likely the _two_ ringleaders as well. Then, I can promise you, this problem will never happen again."

Okay, Marie was _done_.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" She all but roared. "How are people being objects for others' amusement _not_ a problem, but rather the problem being that they're _no longer slaves?!_ What kind of logic is that?!" She seemed to heavily confuse the Vice Admiral and the surrounding guards, but she didn't care. "You act like Celestial Dragons are the godsends the world needs, when they're just assholes who abuse the power _you_ grant them that they should _never_ have been given, and then actual, good people are the ones you condemn to hell as if they never deserved to be born! People who actually care! People who will listen to what you have to say! How are you all so _oblivious_ to all of this stuff happening right under your noses, _right in front of your faces!?_" She was on the verge of tears. These people...yeah, Jinbe and Tiger coming was the best thing to ever happen in her life.

"Saint Marie-"

"And for the last time…" She growled, her irises and pupils shrinking before the latter suddenly glowed a fierce red. "LET. ME. **GO!**"

In what seemed like forever, a sudden force crashed into everyone there like whitewater. The six surrounding soldiers dropping to the ground with foam in the mouth. From their empty eyes, they were unconscious. Even Milivoj was sweating slightly, his eyes shaking a bit.

"W-What?" He thought, barely able to keep it together. He did not expect _that_.

After noticing that the Vice Admiral's grip had loosened for some reason, Marie quickly jumped out and ran towards where the others had gone, grabbing her baton on the way.

Milivoj just sat there, confused. How did she have_ that_? At such a young age, too. "What just…"

* * *

Tiger looked back to the burning castle behind him, and the scorching city he had almost crossed out of. This place was disgusting, housing such a cruel class of not humans, but _things_. To commit such crimes for so long because they were born after people who formed this terrible association in the first place...it was too despicable for utterable words. This place _deserved_ to be burned.

"Fall to ashes, you damn eyesore." Tiger muttered, turning around to leave with the rest of them. Hopefully Jinbe had grabbed Marie by now.

"STOP RIGHT THERE, YOU FISH-FACED BASTARD!"

Tiger stopped in the middle of the path, turning back around to see a familiar, unwelcome face: Saint Louis. His hair was burned, his body bloody, and his expression downright _livid_, panting like he ran a triathlon. He sought to issue death, and from the roar he let off to get Tiger's attention, he was ready to do just that and then some.

Tiger growled. "What do you want, you soulless beast?" He demanded, already irritable as is.

Saint Louis's eye twitched even harder. It almost looked like a winking machine gun. "YOU'RE calling ME a _SOULLESS BEAST_?!" He hollered. "_You're_ the one who invaded this holy land to enact terrorism! _You're _the one who burned by beautiful, unique hair to cinders! _You're_ the one who _ruined my life_, are you not?!"

Tiger glared at his former captor. "You mean to tell me that, even with your house, let alone your city burning to the ground, your forces all but wiped, and your own _daughter_ missing, possibly dead, that your main focus of concern is your _**HAIR**_!?"

For all the wrong reasons in the book, Saint Louis was just as infuriated. "YES!" He confirmed, running his hand through the few strands left. "It's my most prized trait, something that makes me unique among my fellow World Nobles! Of course it's my focus!" He then glared at Tiger harder. "And besides, what would you know of _her_." He spat.

'Not even an hour and more than you, apparently.' Tiger thought to himself sadly. "Is it not the duty of one to protect their offspring? To ensure the safety of their own kin above all else?" He questioned, narrowing his eyes. "Or are you too good for that commitment?"

"HA!" The Dragon hollered. "You know, as much as I may despise admiring it, you may be right; odds are she _did_ burn in my house when it blew up." He sneered out a laugh. "I wouldn't know, though; I never went back to check."

Tiger was seething _heavily_ now. "You mean that you left your daughter in a burning house to save your own skin, _without a second thought_?!" He roared, furious about how one man- no, _thing_\- could be so self-serving.

Neither noticed the silver blur running through, leaping into the air.

Saint Louis threw his hands in the air exaggeratedly "YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!" He shouted, laughing hysterically. "I never even wanted that child in the first place!" Tiger growled at that one. "I wanted a reason to boost my status, and seeing as Rosward pulled it off, I figured 'Why not?', but _no_, you have to take care of them for the rest of your godforsaken life!" He pulled out a golden pistol from his oxygen suit. "I was stuck with that miserable little shit for over five years before tonight, always asking me to help her, always wanting to know what I thought, _always questioning our position in the world_! I'd be damned, she was as pathetic as that damn Homing!"

Tiger had no clue who Homing was, but it didn't quite matter, as his rage could no longer be quenched. This man had a child for the sake of status among an incredibly minor group of stuck up fucks (which in itself was a lost cause), cared not for raising her despite Marie being one of the greatest children a parent could ask for, complain about such a life taking up _his_ time, and then aiming that minuscule pistol at him as if it was all his fault. Hell, he was _**glad**_ that she might have died, as if she was a _**BURDEN**_.

His list of reasons as to why he hated Saint Louis almost quintupled in the past hour alone.

"A BURDEN?!" Tiger bellowed, making the Dragon slightly flinch. "YOU HAVE A CHILD, USE HER AS A TOOL, AND THEN HAVE THE BALLS TO CONSIDER HER A _BURDEN_!?"

Saint Louis just started laughing like a madman. He was certainly demented by now. "But what does it matter?!" He asked, still laughing. "She's dead, Saint Ptah's dead, countless government officers are dead…" He clicked back the hammer, causing Tiger's grip on his bazooka to tighten. "And you will soon be joining them!" He aimed the gun right at Tiger's head, right down the straight and narrow. "HEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHA! I AM A WORLD NOBLE, A CELESTIAL DRAGON!" He roared to the heavens above. "MY WORD IS LAW, MY CHOICES ABSOLUTE, MY DEMANDS REALITY, MY-"

CLANG!

What neither of them saw coming was Marie from left field, in the air with her steel baton from earlier, slugging her 'father' right across the left side of his face. With drool coming out of his mouth, eyes white and void, teeth disfigured from impact, and the dropping of his pistol, it was clear that the swing had made him go unconscious.

Marie felt the momentum of the swing get to her, as she flipped forward and landed on her back as she dropped the baton beside her. Painful it may be, she didn't care; she had just slammed her birth guardian in the face with a silver billy club to stop him from shooting an oversized sea bream.

So why was she smiling like a madman?

Tiger ran up to her. "You good?" He asked.

Marie gave a thumb up. "Been better." She chuckled.

Tiger chuckled as well. "New hair?" He asked, noticing how her hair was more messy and outward now.

Marie simply nodded from where she lay. "Mhm." It was still silver, but is was more parted into segments, but compared to the surrounding groups of hair, they were very unordered. If not for how good the individual groups were, she'd be comparable to a mop. Still only went to shoulder height, though.

Jinbe suddenly ran up behind Tiger, worried. "What's taking you so long?" He asked as everyone else was already on the run towards the Bondolas. He then saw a certain renegade on the ground. "Marie! The hell happened to you?!" He leaves her behind upon _her demand_, and now she comes back like this?!

The girl laughed. "Nothing." She cheekily responded, getting up with a bit of pain.

Jinbe sighed, knowing he wasn't getting more than that. "Alright then," He turned around to keep running. "Then let's go. We're almost out!"

As Tiger followed, Marie grabbed her baton and turned to follow suit, but stopped after she saw something: her father's golden pistol. She walked towards it before picking it up, looking at it. As she looked at it, she turned to her father near the fire on the opposite end of the burning path. A few thoughts rushed through her mind. She could throw it into the fire beside him and let it melt away (or at least render it irreparable) right beside his unconscious form. _OR_ she could take it with her and come back when she was older, shooting him with his own gun when the time was nigh. Yeah, that one sounded a lot cooler.

As such, she threw it into the fire beside him, running off to catch up with the others as it slowly withered away. Odds are he wouldn't even remember having the gun and, _if_ he was still alive in the future, would probably have a new one anyway. Badass moments were really shitty when nobody had a clue.


	17. My Territory

DATE: AUGUST 28th, 2019 (28/8/19)

* * *

Now, if she was being honest, Boa Hancock had anticipated what her life would be like depending on whether or not she was caught not even a few weeks after being branded and thrown behind iron.

Either she, Marigold and Sandersonia returned from their voyage three years ago, lived their normal lives on Amazon Lily, and hopefully, if she tried her hardest, became the Empress of the Kuja Tribe (though that was a pipe dream and a half).

The alternative was when she _did_ get caught (as shown now), where she'd be a slave for around two more years from now with her sisters and then likely thrown into the dust and shot until they were a rug. And believe you her, she'd seen it with her own eyes. Yeah, her innocence got blown out the fucking water through this torture.

She had never met a man before, nor had her sisters, having only left on that one voyage before. So when she first met them in the form of the World Nobles, her hopes and interests had been crushed to pieces, causing her to heavily distrust all men, evidence being said Dragons. This only escalated to absolutely everyone bar the three of them towards one another when they learned the female World Nobles were just as cruel, and yet somehow even vainer.

Then, all of a sudden, three more people just waltz in and break those expectations as well. At this point, she might as well just give in to the heart of the cards.

Firstly, there was Fisher Tiger, a bipedal species she'd known to be Fish-Man thanks to some of the other slaves being said species. He had shown that, as a few of the other slaves had recognised, he was a former slave who escaped from Mariejois, only to come running back to free everyone. It sounded ridiculous without actions to back up, even worse so on the paper she drew in her head, but from the events that had occurred for the past hour or so, it definitely seemed possible. Hell, if not for him having the absolute bravery to come back to such a hell as Mariejois, she wouldn't be running out of the city towards the Bondolas right now. He was incredibly harsh on the command but had exhibited incredible leadership skills, as well as strength in combat. And some strange weapons, too. Where'd they get them from?

Next was the other, blue Fish-Man. If she recalled correctly, they'd called him Jinbe? Either way, he definitely seemed to be a lot calmer in disposition compared to Tiger, and dare she say it, _nicer_ than Tiger was; before they broke out, he comforted the less emotionally stable prisoners from freaking out. Hell, he even made a few of them smile. In terms of power, his raw physical strength was visibly less compared to the other Fish-Man with him, but he had a whole slew of techniques involving water to compensate. How did he do that? Where'd it even come from?

Finally, the biggest shocker, one of the Celestial Dragons had accompanied them, Saint Marie. Being a young child, she hadn't a clue why the girl was there in the first place, but upon seeing the two Fish-Men assumed that they were slaves and she was bringing them to a cage. But _nope_, turns out she was actually helping the two break everyone out. For god's sake, the two claimed she was the only reason they even had the keys to the cells in the first place, or even how she shut down the entire security system so that the two Fish-Men weren't tracked and found in there, nor when everyone got out. Every time she did something, she expected her to betray everyone, handing them to the rest of the Dragons on a silver platter. But it never happened. And why it didn't she'd never know.

But none of that mattered now; the three of them were outside the borders of the now burning city, they were running as fast as their legs could carry them, and they were damn _exhausted_. But they wouldn't stop because of a little stamina; not when freedom was right there at the bottom of that cliff.

One other thing they expected was for everyone to split up and run separate ways, trying to escape with what they had and barely be able to start a new life. All three of them expected to be alone on their escape and beg for a chance to live again. But from how they were running in a large group headed for the same destination right now, it seemed that wouldn't be the case either.

Fate was weird. It should make its mind up, at the very least.

"How..much *wheeze*...longer, sis?!" Marigold heaved, physically wanting to throw in the towel.

Hancock turned to her sister beside her with a smile. "Don't worry, Marigold," She assured. "We'll be away from the Red Line soon."

Sandersonia wasn't as bad as Marigold was, but she was also panting a bit. "I just hope...that what that man said...was true." She pleaded. "About us...getting out this way, I mean."

"I wouldn't worry about that." A human Giuseppe suddenly appeared beside Marigold, who flinched at his voice. Jack was also beside them. "Brutal as he is, they seem straight as arrows. Even the bloody _Dragon_."

Marigold almost coughed as she nodded. "I...hope…" She muttered back, almost ready to pass out.

Giuseppe rose an eyebrow before quickly shifting to his Zoan form. "Get on," he offered. "Then you aren't left in the dust when the Marines catch up."

Marigold looked rather nervous at the offer. A random man had just used a Zoan Devil Fruit like she and Sandersonia could and offered to carry her so that she didn't collapse. Frankly, it sounded way too good to be true.

"It's okay, Marigold," She turned around to see Sandersonia smiling her way. "That Tiger person...was riding him earlier…" She sounded like she was running out as well.

Marigold turned back to the bloodhound, who was still running at her pace, staring in thought. Her mind wasn't working all too good right now, but she did know that if she didn't, odds are she'd be left behind, the officers being too close for her sisters to stop and catch her. She didn't have a life-retaining choice.

"...Alright." Marigold gave in with a nod.

Giuseppe knew that his full Zoan form was too big for her to just climb on, and even if that weren't the case, she'd be too tired for that anyway. As such, he turned to Jack. "Mind lifting her on?" He asked the musclehead.

Jack simply nodded with a smile. "Okay." He slowed down a bit to run behind Giuseppe, speeding back up behind Marigold to life her up and drop her onto Giuseppe's back.

Marigold eased into an abdominal lying position, grabbing his loose neck folds however tight her little strength left could. "Thank you…" She all but whispered in exhaustion, ready to pass out at any given moment.

"Don't mention it." Giuseppe chuckled a bit. They were all slaves in this situation; might as well show some kinship when possible, no?

* * *

"I'm sorry, what happened?" Jinbe asked the girl on his shoulders.

Marie looked back down to Jinbe; apparently he didn't understand. "I said that after asking a few times really loudly, the Vice Admiral let me go."

Jinbe raised an eyebrow as he looked up to her. "Look, I apologise, alright? It's just I _really_ don't see how or why he'd let a Celestial Dragon go running just like that, let alone in the direction of the _two_ 'terrorists'." He explained his confusion.

There was some sound logic to Jinbe's argument. "You have a point." She conceded.

Tiger, meanwhile, had heard of something similar to this before: the ability to overwhelm one with sheer willpower. It was said to be incredibly rare, though he never caught on to how much so; they were said to be able to harbour incredible leadership. Almost like a conqueror.

Similar to this, there was what Jinbe had told him once after the latter had just learned it. "Hey, Marie." He was curious to see if it was true.

From Jinbe's shoulders, she turned his direction. "Hm?" She preceded.

"A question, if you will." He asked. "When you got out of the Marine's grip, was he sweating? Paranoid? Was anybody else nearby suddenly unconscious?"

All Marie did was shrug. "I dunno," she responded. "Never checked. I just got out of there the first chance I got."

So no answers today then. "Very well," Tiger sighed. "Thank you anyway."

Marie tilted her head to the side. "For what?" She asked, confused.

Jinbe, meanwhile, was smiling the whole time. 'Conqueror's, huh?" He thought to himself. Yeah, asking Whitebeard what had happened when he saved Fish-Man Island was a great idea in retrospect.

* * *

"_Collect all of their crewmembers," Whitebeard ordered. "Bring them to their ship and send them back up. We can't have any further risks than this."_

_Everyone ordered gave either a thumbs up or a salute towards their captain, smiles of their own. "You got it, Pops!" They unanimously complied._

_As they ran off, Whitebeard had some thinking time to himself. "Hmmm…" He hummed. 'With the new 'Great Pirate Era' everyone's talking about, all sorts of Paradise rubble are going to have to come through here to get to the New World.' He turned to the mess that the small pirate crew had almost made. 'If this keeps up, Fish-Man Island may become a wasteland.'_

_He started hearing someone moving in his direction, turning up to see the king Neptune approaching. "Newgate, I cannot thank you enough for defending my people." He earnestly thanked. "With the current rush of pirates moving through since Roger announced _that_, I had worried that the Ryugu Kingdom would not survive, let alone the whole country."_

_Whitebeard sighed. "My worries exactly," He agreed. "Especially with how selfish humans can be…" The growl at the end could tell any man he wasn't pleased._

"_Aye." Neptune also sighed. "Otohime has been trying for gods know how long now to try and get people to sign her letters to help associate with humans." He narrowed his eyes. "But therein lies my worry. What if the people in charge of such democracy are against the merman population? What if they want us gone as badly as the pirates who invade my kingdom.?"_

_The more Neptune vocalised his concerns, the worse and worse Whitebeard felt. This place didn't deserve such treatment. All this place really was to any foreigners was a passageway or a tourist site, not a place to kill or steal who you please. Both of those, in general, were cruel enough, but simply for the sake of discrimination from a superiority complex? That just made his blood boil._

_But what if...what if he could do something to stop them? They feared _his_ name, didn't they? Perhaps…_

"_Pardon me, your majesty," Whitebeard excused._

_Neptune looked back down to him. "What is it?" He inquired._

_Whitebeard looked over all of the happy Fish-Men, Fish-Women, mermaids, mermen, and all of the children of either species. They were in complete and utter peace because they thought there wasn't a reason to fear. Because _he_ was there, that the 'bad people' wouldn't come by anymore. That the pillaging pirates wouldn't invade their home for any longer._

"_I have a proposition, you see."_

_Neptune rose an eyebrow. "Such as?" He asked, curious as to what his old friend would like to offer._

_Whitebeard fully turned to Neptune. "I wish to claim Fish-Man Island as my territory." He announced, plain and simple._

This_ had Neptune's attention. "Hoh hoh hoh!" He laughed. "And for what reason do you believe this will help, Newgate?" He questioned, curious about the reason. Seeing as it _was_, well, Whitebeard, it was likely a good one._

_Whitebeard turned back to the city. "You see, I know countless other pirates either respect, fear or hate my name," He explained. "I suppose a legacy'll do that to a man." He stepped a few to the right. "You see, my idea is to claim this as my own territory is not for my crew taking ownership of this land, as we are able to manage for ourselves rather well. For the miscellaneous crews attacking Fish-Man Island, however…"_

"_Hoh hoh hoh!" Neptune had managed to catch on. "The attackers will have to be aware that _your name_ guards the country, causing them to fear that they'd have to answer to you."_

_Whitebeard chuckled to himself. "Precisely." He confirmed. "Because people fear the name of an old man, they'd have to be aware of the consequences for poking the bull."_

_Neptune sighed. He didn't _really_ want to give the island as 'territory' to somebody, but the fact that it was Edward Newgate managed to ease some of the blow, let alone the fact that it was for the protection of the island._

_He couldn't think of another pirate who'd offer this with no true benefit to themselves._

_The two suddenly heard loud screams, dreadful haughty laughs, and a whole lot of firepower, coming from the west side of the plaza._

"_I do believe that's my cue." Whitebeard muttered, charging off to, punny or not, put a crack in their plans of running the joint._

_Not even a minute later, he bellowed the iconic words that saved Fish-Man Island for years to come._

"_FROM NOW ON, I HEREBY CLAIM FISH-MAN ISLAND AS _MY_ TERRITORY!"_

* * *

"_Pardon me, Whitebeard?" Jinbe asked, walking over to the giant human. He wouldn't say he was _giddy_ about what he'd done, but he'd be lying if he wasn't ultimately glad that someone had come to protect the country's people._

_Whitebeard peered down to see a whale shark Fish-Man with a rather...curious look. "Hm?" What'd he want?_

_Jinbe looked behind Whitebeard to the knocked out crew. "Earlier when you managed to, as they say, wipe the floor with them, I couldn't help but notice that some of them had suddenly dropped unconscious, namely their fodder." He turned back to Whitebeard. "Did you cause that somehow?"_

_That was certainly a question Newgate wasn't expecting, let alone that somebody had noticed that he'd let _that_ off. Huh, the fish was observant. But hey, why not give him what he was looking for._

"_Tell me, have you ever heard of Haki?" He asked with a smile, considerably more quietly than before._

_Jinbe rose an eyebrow in confusion. Of course he had; Tiger was decent in using Armament and he was training to get both working himself. "Yes, I have." Jinbe answered slowly. "What's that to do with anything?"_

_Whitebeard rumbled a small chuckle. "Well, you see, you know of Armament and Observation, yes?"_

_Jinbe nodded again, still not knowing where this was going._

"_Well then, what if I told you there was a _third_ type of Haki?"_

_Okay, never mind, that was actually a pretty big bombshell._

"_Beg pardon?" Jinbe asked, wondering if he'd misheard._

"_Conqueror's Haki," Whitebeard explained. "The third type of Haki, and a force of sheer willpower."_

_All of a sudden, Jinbe felt a leer going through his body like a fell arrow. Like his mind was being demanded to stand down. He didn't falter all too much, but was slightly caught off guard by this new feeling._

_Suddenly, it got stronger, demanding he be either on a knee, or passed out in the dirt. Surrender or die. But Jinbe still stood his ground yet._

_Whitebeard rose an eyebrow. He'd laid enough to where most had gone colourless and quivering, and yet this Fish-Man was fighting with his own determination._

"_Tell me, brat," Whitebeard spoke up, not letting up on the Conqueror's just yet. "What's your name?"_

_Jinbe, still flinching from the sheer force of this man's will, managed to look him in the eye, "I am Jinbe." He answered. The pressure intensified yet again, Jinbe visibly flinching slightly. But he still stood his ground, though admittedly barely. What the hell was this?!_

"_Gurararara." Whitebeard laughed to himself. "_That_, Jinbe, is Conqueror's Haki; a manifestation of sheer willpower to overthrow other's with a weaker will."_

_Jinbe nodded, noticing the pressure stayed the same instead of getting stronger slowly. "That explains the name." He muttered._

_Whitebeard nodded. "Indeed. Now, why you may have not heard of it is because, even among the few that _do_ know of Haki, even fewer know of Conqueror's because it's so incredibly rare. Some say one in a million."_

_Jinbe rose an eyebrow. "You trying to pull a humble brag or something?" He jeered._

"_GURARARA!" Whitebeard laughed aloud. "You got spunk, pal. I like it." With no reaction from Jinbe, he moved on. "But no, I'm not. Even if I didn't have it, I'd still do fine with my own strength and crew."_

_Jinbe nodded. The Emperor _seemed_ honest enough. "Luck of the draw then?"_

_Whitebeard chuckled. "Hard to say," He answered. "Some say those with Conqueror's are destined to become leaders; those with the powers of a _king_." After the tense comment, he started laughing again. "Gurarararara! To this day, I still say I just got lucky."_

_Natural born leaders, huh? Well goddamn._

* * *

Yeah, no doubt this kid's going places.

* * *

After about ten more minutes of running through the plains and forests of the outer reaches, the large group of slaves approached the horizon, more specifically how it fell off. After countless steps, the group had finally made it to the end.

"Over there!" Someone called out, pointing towards the Bondolas docked to the north. As such, the group started running towards them, hoping that the two- no, three. The World Noble was helping for some reason- knew what the hell they were doing. Hell, if they didn't hurry, everyone would be found and tracked by the government if they got here before the Fish-Men did.

"EVERYONE!" They turned to see the three coming out of the southwest forest. "Get on, _now_!" Tiger ordered.

Everyone did exactly that, piling onto the large vessel on the left numbered '4', climbing from the bottom entrance gate across a gold-coloured steel bridge, and onto the top level from the stairway inside. Incredibly enough, it was large enough to house all of them; even the giant (on the roof in the middle, which for some reason didn't break. I mean, unless you were there yourself, you wouldn't expect the Bondolas to be _this_ big. Like, it was around a third the size of the Tree of Knowledge.

"Jinbe," The whale shark turned at Tiger's voice. "Drop the rest of them behind us as a barrier."

Jinbe nodded, replying "Got it." He grabbed out the last of the bombs, totalling 7 from 74-80. Connecting them to the remote one by one, he dropped three of them off behind him, sending two more two over to the Bondola labelled '2' out the front of it to stop the government from giving immediate chase. For an idea he had, he opted to keep the last two.

Tiger glanced towards Marie. "Last chance." He repeated.

Jinbe turned towards him. "You do realise if you ask that one more time, she's going to poke your eyes out, right?" He reminded, Marie above him pouting and nodding.

Tiger groaned. "All I'm saying is I don't think it's a good idea for a child so young to suddenly become a renegade against what the world considers the highest class, let alone as once being one of them."

Now it was Marie's turn to sigh. "Look, I know the consequences of me leaving, alright?" She confessed. "But if I stay there any longer with the stuff I now know, I wouldn't be able to take it for too long."

Jinbe rose his eyebrows with a smirk. "Besides, when did _you_ become so moralistic, let alone towards a human?" He chuckled. Marie giggled above him, having heard of Tiger's heavy distrust towards them.

Tiger just looked back forward. "I wish for your death." He muttered.

Jinbe just laughed. "As do I!" He retorted

Before they knew it, they'd caught up with the rest, standing on the top level of the Bondola with the slaves turning towards them.

"What now?" Jack asked, voice still as soft as could be.

Tiger turned to the Bondola before them, looking through it and noticing everything there. Jinbe did the same, trying to find anything that could help, or maybe some sort of controls.

"Hey guys?" The two turned to Jinbe's shoulders. "Mind if I help?" Marie asked.

Jinbe redirected his attention. "What with?"

Marie groaned. "The Bondola. No, an all-you-can-eat buffet. Or maybe some actual decency in the world that isn't painted. What do you think?"

Jinbe put a hand to his chin. "I mean, decency would be nice-"

"Okay, you see the wires to the sides?" Marie asked the group, pointing to the sides of the Bondola. And she was right; there were wires besides the Bondolas, be it up to the stopping point a good forty metres further up, or the fact that they dipped _all_ the way down the Red Line. "And do you see the metal rings?" She was right again; surrounding the Bondolas were four metal rings, one in each 'corner'. All of the wires fit directly through the middle of each hole, giving the idea of a travel line. "Okay, so here's the thing: they help keep the Bondola in line, preventing it from loosening off track."

Giuseppe rose a hand, holding Marigold over his shoulder. "And the point of this is…?"

Marie shrugged, embracing the madness that was sure to envelop her life. "I don't know if there even is one, honestly." She admitted.

This caused every slave there to tilt their head in confusion. "What."

Marie then pounded a fist into her hand, epiphany accompanying her. "OHHHHH. We're talking about getting _down_ the Red Line." She exclaimed.

From below her, Jinbe slapped her across the back of the head. "Focus." He spoke.

"Mhm." Marie hummed. "So below the Bondola, there's a large, round, shiny sphere," She emphasised by using her hands to make a sphere. "That's made of the same substance they use to make bubbles in the Sabaody Archipelago."

Jinbe had thought they'd seemed familiar. 'The same as Fish-Man Island, too.' He thought, remembering the floats used by some of the merfolk appearing out of the water to move easier without having to leap on a single limb.

Marie continued, "Those bubbles, like at the Archipelago, are used to float the whole Bondola up the Red Port to Mariejois and back down again, maintaining the weight of the vessel."

If she hadn't mind blown the crown before her with how intelligent and knowledgeable she truly was, their heads were broken by now.

She pointed down to the bottom of the Bondola. "To repeat, that bubble under the Bondola is used to fly it up and down the Red Line. And _that_ is our ticket out of here."

The basa Fish-Man rose an eyebrow, crossing his arms. "And how's that, exactly?" He questioned.

Having figured out her plan, fucking dangerous as it may be, Jinbe stepped forward. "Ïf we can pop that bubble under there, we can be sent down there instantly without a means to be caught up with." He explained.

This caused a bunch of commotion among the slaves, some worried and some agreeing.

Then Hancock stood forward. "But…" She spoke up. "If we pop the bubble and get sent straight down, wouldn't we crash at the port below?" This was actually a good point: if they _did_ get sent down with nothing more than a hail mary, odds are they'd die from the sheer impact.

Jinbe nodded. "Yes, that is true. However, if we tried to find a control panel to head down normally, they could catch up to us faster, and as such risk us getting caught." He then smirked. "That's why I have an idea that could work."

One of the random slaves threw his hands up. "No way, man!" He called out. "We can't have any 'what if's at a time like this!"

Jinbe sighed. "There are no guarantees in a breakout. There never have been!" He retorted. "Now listen: as stupid as it sounds, we _need_ to be on that...Bondola, was it?" He paused, turning up to Marie, who nodded. "We _need_ to be on the Bondola, bursting the bubble underneath if we want any sort of way to escape _without_ being tracked. Like I said, I have a plan that may work, but if we don't risk dying there we _will_ die when they catch up to us, alright?" With meek nods and mumbles, the slaves seemed to be nervous. I mean, why wouldn't they be? They could likely die from this! Then again, like he said, they'd still die if they didn't…

Jinbe then turned his attention to the giant in the back left. "You," He spoke, pointing to the giant. "What's your name?"

The giant pointed a finger to himself, wondering if Jinbe meant him, to which the latter nodded. "Fidelis." The giant answered, booming slightly from his sheer size.

Jinbe nodded. "Alright, Fidelis," He reintroduced. "When we get on the Bondola, I'm going to need you to remove the stabilising wires, especially the front two." He ordered, pointing to said wires and rings. "The plan requires us to be away from the Red Line and as close to the ocean as possible, our momentum shifting forward." He turned back to the giant. "Do you think you can help with that?"

Fidelis shrugged a bit. "I suppose I can try." He accepted, moving to the right of Bondola 4 towards the front of the two cables. He grabbed the cable, climbing down it towards the anchor and grabbed the ring, as well as the protruding bar between the anchor and Bondola.

Before he started pulling, his eyes widened. He looked up, and then smiled a bit. "I have a better idea." He muttered, letting go of the cable.

Tiger rose an eyebrow as the giant climbed up the wire and out of the Bondola and onto the top of the supporting frame above the Bondola, which looked like a crane at a construction site. "What are you doing?!" He wondered, confused as to why Fidelis moved _away_ from the cable.

Fidelis crawled his body across the top of the frame, grabbing the steel anchor ring below, the wire looping through. "Doing something _far_ smarter!" He retorted, pulling off the anchor with a shocking amount of ease in comparison to the wire, crushing the anchor in his grip. As he let go, the wire fell through the anchor on the Bonsola, sinking further and further into the blue ocean below them all until it wasn't even visible.

Jinbe put a hand to his chin. "Holy hell, that _is_ smarter." He muttered, Fidelis pulling off and crushing the second anchor above them. On second thought, how the hell was the support holding the giant up there in the first place?!

Giuseppe stepped towards Jinbe. "Alright, I get," He said. "You want us to pull this thing off and burst the bubble so we fall quicker than normal." He raised an eyebrow. "But then what? Are we _supposed_ to sink like an anchor into the ocean literal _thousands_ of metres below us?!"

Jinbe nodded. "Yes." He replied.

Giuseppe was at a loss for words with how standard Jinbe said that, as if it were a natural part of life itself. "That's nice and all, but how the hell do we land _**alive**_?" He shot back, wanting to at least _live_ a free life for more than a single hour.

Having answered this to Hancock and the rest already, Jinbe patted his shoulder. "Don't worry about that," He assured. "I'll tell you as we fall." He then walked off to see that Fidelis was already climbing the other support frame.

Giuseppe shrugged to nobody. "Guess I'll die." He surrendered.

Meanwhile, above them, Fidelis had just pulled off the final cable, sinking below them the same as the rest. As he did, the whole Bondola suddenly felt much...floatier. Likely from how there was no longer any stable support keeping it in place.

Fidelis climbed off of the support, headed back onto the roof. "Now what?" He asked Jinbe, who was at the front with everyone else.

Jinbe turned to the giant, nodding in understanding. "Alright, we're loose." He muttered before turning to the rest. "Listen up, everyone: when we burst the bubble below us, the Bondola is going to fall at a fierce velocity. Our goal is to force the Bondola to drift forward away from the Red Line towards the ocean. Seeing as there's no support to maintain it now, that shouldn't be all too hard." He turned up to their local giant. "Fidelis, I'm going to need you to step to the front here when we are after these orders, preferably the lower level directly below us."

The giant nodded. "Alright then."

He shifted back to the rest of the slaves. "Everyone else, move towards the back of the Bondola as a counterbalance to make sure we don't flip over entirely." He ordered, pointing to the railings on the back of the massive sky boat. Everyone immediately complied, rushing over. They didn't get how some so massive and heavy would be affected by _their_ weight, but alright.

Tiger turned to Jinbe. "Who in the hell put you in charge?" He asked, confused as to why he was just giving orders with no discussion.

Jinbe shrugged. "I have a plan to get down." He retorted. "Actually, remind me again why we didn't make a plan for _how_ we get down before we got here?"

Tiger wanted to say something, but decided to bite his tongue. "We did not." He admitted. "A fair point; why didn't we?"

Jinbe shook his hands in front of him. "Improv!" He exclaimed.

Tiger nodded. "Fair enough." he accepted. This mission was insane enough, why not some improvisation?

Nonetheless, everything was in place, and odds are that the backup the government inevitably sent was hot on their tails. If they didn't escape now, there was a fairly good chance that they wouldn't at all.

Jinbe turned to his sworn brother. "Tiger," He spoke up. "I'm going to need you to follow them over there to maintain their dispositions upon the descent."

A nod came from the sea bream. "Very well." He complied. "Anything else?"

Jinbe's eyes brightened a bit. "Actually, yes." He pulled out the last two bombs from the sack, labelled '77' and '80'. "Take these with you," He requested. "When I give the signal, I'm going to throw down a sharp dart of water into the bubble below us, causing us to fall. At the same time, I want you to throw these two above all of you so we're given enough force to be launched outward and away from the Red Port." He looked over the railing to the void blue and white below them. "Once we land, I'll swim over and bring the ship we docked myself; that should make the escape far easier."

All that Tiger could really do was raise an eyebrow. "Jinbe," He replied. "You're fucking insane."

The whale shark shrugged. "Meh, it happens." He replied back nonchalantly, then giving the two bombs to Tiger. "But enough about that; time to go." He then ran to the very edge of the Bondola, as far away as possible from the Red Port.

Tiger sighed, running towards the stairway down to everyone else.


	18. Do or Die

DATE: OCTOBER 21st, 2019 (21/10/19)

* * *

After drinking what was around her sixth cup of coffee by now, Robin collapsed on the table, ironically. Head in between her crossed arms, face down on the table, she let out a groan that a drunk neckbeard would mistake for a mother bear.

"What's taking him so long…?" She drawled.

Brook, having made his own coffee amid Robin's little crisis, sat down near her. "I understand your concerns for his safety Robin, but doing what they're trying to do is not easy nor fast-paced. Efficiently, that is." He placed a bony hand on her shoulder. "As hard as it may be, I ask that you just be a little more patient."

Robin peered her head up a little so her eyes could look Brook dead in the eye socket. "When someone is likely to die and you can't see what they're doing or what's happening, you tend to worry yourself to the point of nausea." She pointed.

Franky popped his head up from reading the book Brook had given him; one about cities on wheels and a girl with a scar across her face. "That's just the _super_ coffee," He pointed out. "Shitton of caffeine is a bad idea, ain't it?"

Robin just sunk her head back into her arms, mumbling three different languages at once. Though it wasn't too long before she pulled her head back up with her arms.

"Look, I just don't want Jinbe to die, okay?!" She confessed. "I meet some of the greatest people ever in the middle of nowhere, take them as the family I never got, and now one of them is sending themselves on a suicide mission for the sake of freeing others from purgatory. Is it wrong for me to worry?!"

Franky rose an eyebrow. "Like I said two _hours_ ago, and _five_ before that, we aren't talking about him dying, aight?" He reminded the Luopian. "We _know_ he's strong as hell, more than enough to pull this off. He'll be back here before you know it!" He smiled, thumb up with his free hand.

Robin rested her head back in her crossed arms. "I swear to god if it's in a body bag…"

"That's my line." Brook cut in through her mumbling. "Now, as Franky said, Jinbe's strength is truly something to behold. I'm sure he'll be alright."

Robin sighed. They were right; there wasn't anything she could do about it but hope and wait, despite having done that for almost thirty hours now.

"More coffee." She mumbled, standing up to go to the kitchen and brew another cup.

Brook grabbed her head and turned her around. "You've had more than enough caffeine for one day, young lady." He retorted softly.

"Okay." Robin resigned, tired.

* * *

"_Vice Admiral Milivoj, sir!_"

The Vice Admiral pulled his Transponder Snail out of his shirt pocket. "Speak, Lieutenant." He permitted, running out of the city.

"_The remaining World Nobles have been evacuated to the northern forest, sir._" The Marine replied. "_However, we're having slight difficulties keeping them calm._"

Milivoj sighed. There was no time for that right now. "So long as they're safe from further harm, it should be alright." He responded. "Keep them there until we've captured them. Upon returning them to their cells, we clear all remaining bombs in Mariejois and begin rebuilding their homes."

He could've sworn he _heard_ the salute from there. "_Yes, sir!_" The Lieutenant affirmed.

_Gatcha_.

With the snail having hung up, he put it back into his pocket, resuming full focus towards where the slaves ran off to. The problem? He was alone; from that blast of energy from Saint Marie earlier, not only had he lost ground, but all of his men were knocked out. Even the ones he sent after the Fish-Man were seen knocked out as he ran after them.

But that didn't answer the question on his mind. Why the hell was Saint Marie running _towards_ the terrorists? And where did she get that baton from?

* * *

"Everyone, please remain calm!" Tiger shouted over the slaves conversing, not knowing whether or not they were actually panicking. "We'll be down and out of Mariejois soon enough!"

"That ain't the enigma, mate!" As they all turned towards Tiger, the basa Fish-Man spoke up. "We're banging on about us _surviving_ the bloody trip!"

Tiger sighed. "Look, we've been over this," He drawled, yeeing yet another haw. "I have faith in my brother that we'll be fine, and he's yet to prove me wrong yet."

* * *

Marie looked down at Jinbe. "I have a question." She asked.

Jinbe looked to the young girl on his shoulders. "What?" He replied.

Marie jabbed her thumb behind her to the other end of the Bondola. "How do we signal them from _all the way over here_ again?" She shot, confused as to how it'd pull off such timing from such a distance.

She had a point; he hadn't elaborated on that yet. "I'm throwing two water darts, actually. One to send a signal to Tiger, which I'll calculate will reach there by time, and the other to burst the bubble below us." He replied, pointing below them to where he assumed the bubble was. "So don't worry about it, alright?" He gave her a noogie.

From the sudden head scrub, Marie started giggling. "Okay, okay, I get it! Cut it out!" She cried, laughing her ass off as she tried to grab Jinbe's arms.

Jinbe smirked. "Then if you're done doubting my groundless judgment, we _might_ be able to leave." He announced, forming two sharp projectiles in his hand with the surrounding water, like stalagmites.

Marie's grip on the Fish-Man's kimono tightened. "Should I hang on tightly for dear life?" She wondered.

All that Jinbe gave was a shrug. "Unless you want to die, why not?" He replied, aiming the first dart outwards towards the dark horizon.

* * *

"Fidelis," Tiger called out to the giant. "A favour, if you will!"

The giant peered through the ravine between the main structure and the downstairs overlook. "What is it?" He pondered.

Tiger grabbed the '77' bomb. "Catch!" He called out, throwing the small bomb all the way up with surprising ease, Fidelis catching it with his giant hands with even greater ease. "We need you to drop that downwards on my signal! Understand?!"

Fidelis just gave a thumbs up. "Alright then." the giant replied, moving towards the edge of the Bondola, holding onto the railing for a grip.

Tiger turned to the basa Fish-Man, who he'd learned was named Kemp, holding out the remote from the sack Jinbe had given him. "I'm going to throw my bomb directly outwards while Fidelis drops his from the top, exploding them in two separate locations." He informed before shoving the remote further into Kemp's grip. "The moment Fidelis releases his bomb, I want you to detonate both of them at the same time, even if you need a second hand to do so. Understood?"

Kemp nodded. "All good, mate." He affirmed nonchalantly, grabbing the giant remote. As he looked down, he raised an eyebrow. "Which two again?" He asked.

Tiger looked up, thinking back to what Jinbe had told him. After about five seconds, he turned back to Kemp. "'77' and '80', I'm pretty sure." He replied, walking to the front of the observation port below and punching the glass off, preparing his throw.

"Aight." Kemp understood. He quickly turned around to the crowd behind him in gossip, trying to find a spare hand. After a bit of searching, he found a man standing in the corner of the room by himself, slightly tall with a skinny frame. Had some decent muscle, but nowhere near enough to arm wrestle yours truly. The guy was wearing an orange bandana on his head, the colour incredibly faded and worn to all hell. Considering the rest of his getup was rather plain, long black pants and a loose, wrecked white t-shirt, the bandana was all that stood out.

He walked up to the man in question, grabbing him by the shirt and dragging him along like nobody's business, almost tearing it.

The human glared towards him from behind. "What the hell?!" He demanded.

Kemp didn't budge his head as he moved back to his spot near the lookout. "I need a hand, mate," He answered. "You mind?"

All the man did was ross his arms in a huff. "Well, _that_ would depend on what exactly you want to do to me." He shot back.

_That_ comment made Kemp turn back around with a confused look. "The hell do you mean 'do to you'?" He queried. "Mate, I said I needed some _assistance_, not an arvo massage."

The man turned his head back around with an eyebrow raised. "But with _what_ exactly?" He asked, the argument going nowhere.

Kemp pointed towards the outside of the Bondola. "You know how those three are blowing up some bombs outside, yeah?" He asked, to which the human nodded his head. "Perfect. I need you to help press the buttons at the same time."

As Kemp stopped, the human pulled himself back up. "What buttons?" He inquired.

Kemp pulled out the remote from beside him on the wall, where he'd placed it. "This," The basa answered. "I need you to press '77' at the same time I press '80'. You can do that, yeah?"

The human seemed hesitant. Understandable why. "Oookay…?" He responded, unsure. "What are they for anyhow?"

Kemp jabbed a thumb behind himself. "The bombs that are getting us the fuck out," He shot. "The hell'd you think they were for?"

A shrug was enacted by the man. "I don't know," He admitted. "I didn't assume that since _you_ had the remote and not _them_."

Kemp put a hand to his chin, thinking. 'The bugger's making sense, at least. Book's cover, yeah?' He thought to himself. "Fair enough," He laughed off. "Now come on then; we got an oversized teapot to blow!"

All the man did was nod, a small smile on his face. "Very well." He agreed. 'Quite charismatic he is.' He noted.

* * *

After a good five minutes of nonstop running, Milivoj had finally begun to have the Bondolas enter his line of sight. Odds were that the terrorists had either hijacked one of them to descend, or they'd tried escaping elsewhere. The latter was almost impossible with all of the slaves that had escaped, and from what he'd last seen, they were all in a single large group. So unless they completely juked him without him even noticing, there was no doubt they had boarded one of the Bondolas, maybe even both of them.

Milivoj growled lowly to himself. "I will _not_ let them escape." He muttered.

Soon enough, he was within open view of the Bondola, and on the bottom observation deck, there were most if not all of the escapees. Even though his duty was to return the slaves to Mariejois, he had two more priorities to deal with in this situation.

"LISTEN WELL, FISH-MEN!" He roared, scaring some of the slaves with how loud it was. A few of the Fish-Man slaves were, quite frankly, offended that they'd been called out. Fortunately for _them_, at least, Milivoj quickly narrowed that further. "You two have performed quite possibly one of the greatest incidents Mariejois has ever seen. You've infiltrated our holy land, burned the city of the Celestial Dragons, detonated most of Pangaea Castle, _killed_ Saint Ptah, evacuated every slave up here, rigged one of our vehicles of transportation here, AND EXPECT TO GET AWAY WITH IT!?"

After a few seconds of letting that echo through the cliffside, Tiger stepped forward, everyone else clearing out of the way. "Yes," He answered simply, an almost underwhelming response despite the utmost seriousness in his tone. "Yes, we do. What seems to be the issue?"

Milivoj's right eye almost twitched the whole way up. "_What is the issue?_" He echoed, baffled that they'd just play dumb like that.

Giuseppe walked to beside Tiger. "Well, yeah?" He shrugged. "The three of them broke out slaves from a bunch of tyrants, which if you ask me is a _heroic_ act if anything."

The Vice Admiral didn't let that remark slip. "You dare to belittle the World Nobles?!" He demanded, outraged even further after flat out killing one of them. Frankly, they were spitting on his grave. The nerve!

Wait...three of them?

Kemp stepped forward, the human he dragged earlier beside him. "Mate, you should already know by now that nobody here cares, let alone has _respect_ for the pricks." He explained.

"If anything," The man beside him followed. "Them being blown off their feet is more of a blessing to the rest of the world." At that, _every_ slave there nodded in agreement, having experienced their terror firsthand.

Putting aside the third unknown member, Milivoj jabbed a finger to the group of fugitives before him. "Whatever, your opinions and feelings matter not," He shot down. "You rest here on Bondola 4, trapped like a gobble of dodos with nowhere to flee." He jabbed a finger at himself. "Not only do I have the strength and ability to likely take down your whole group, but even if I simply weaken you, reinforcements approach as we speak. _You cannot escape_."

As a dart of water flew past him, shifting upwards towards Fidelis, Tiger rose a feral smirk. "_Bet._" He growled back, nothing but glee visible in his face and malice dancing in the light of his eyes.

As Tiger pulled out the same bomb from earlier, Milivoj chortled. "Do you expect to blow yourselves up in defeat?" He accused. "It matters not if we kill you, we still have the satisfaction of your fall!"

Noting the word 'fall', "Oy, Baz," Kemp whispered, said human also leaning in. "He ain't wrong, is he?"

Baz smiled, also catching on. "It'd be hard to object, wouldn't it?" He responded with a chuckle.

Tiger chuckled. "Not quite." He responded to the navy officer, chucking the bomb up and down in his hand. With that, he turned around to the group before him. "Time to go!" He announced. "Head inside and hold on to a railing!"

With that, everyone else raced towards the centre of the Bondola, preparing to hold on for dear life. It was all or nothing now, though they wouldn't lie about the latter feeling more than likely.

Kemp and Baz stayed behind a bit, giving a quick thumbs up each to Tiger, who noted the human that Kemp had chosen. At his nod, the two went a bit further behind Tiger, waiting for the signal before they'd join the others.

"What do you mean 'time to go'?!" Milivoj demanded. "I said it once and I'll say it again: you're trapped, and you've lost!" As he finished, arms outstretched, the backup he spoke of joined him, around forty more soldiers with rifles at the ready, all being cocked and aimed at the Fish-Man. "Now surrender or _fall!_"

Tiger, stoic as he was, was not going to let this man tell him what to do after getting this far, let alone a man who was sided with _them_. "We will _not_-"

He then got pushed aside by a tall human and a Fish-Man.

"Ignore him, sorry," Baz shouted, smiling. "He's not quite thinking straight, see?"

Kemp held up his index and middle fingers. "We'll take number 2!" He requested, also with a suspicious grin.

Tiger grinned to himself from his new position. That was a _far_ better idea.

Milivoj raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry?" He asked, confused.

As the dart of water flew past Fidelis, the giant held his bomb out and tilted his hand, dropping it down.

As Baz and Kemp ran inside, pressing down '77' and '80' simultaneously, Tiger threw his bomb up as high as he could. It was time to escape. It was time to _fall_.

Tiger held the railing, ready to drop down, saluting Milivoj with two fingers. "Godspeed." He muttered.

**POP!**

**BOOM!**

**BOOM!**

With a force that knocked over almost everyone inside, the Bondola was slowly sent forward and away from the Red Line, proceeding to make like a steel anchor and sink _hard_.

Milivoj and his men rushed forward to the edge of the cliff, one of them almost falling off had there not been two men to grab their shirt and pull them back up.

Wonderful. Not only had they entered into the holy land of the world prohibitively, broken entrance into the headquarters of the whole government, released every single slave owned by the World Nobles from their cells, and detonated the entirety of Mariejois to flame, along with Pangaea dancing within a fire of its own, but they had managed to flat out escape unharmed with every single slave still with them, taken one of their main vehicles of transportation to even get up here, and _pissed him off_ so badly the English language wouldn't be able to properly describe it without using a thesaurus that didn't exist.

"**DAMMIT!**"

* * *

As he closed his book, trying to not wake up the Luopian sleeping on his shoulder, Franky looked up to his corpse of an uncle. "Hey, Brook," He spoke in a loud whisper, trying to not wake up Robin.

Brook looked up, pausing his game of 3-card Klondike. "Yes, Franky?"

Franky rose a suspicious eyebrow. "You have no clue if he's really gonna be _super_ alright, do you?" He accused, frowning.

"Yohohoho." Brook chuckled to himself. "Of course I don't, Franky; I am no psychic, last I recall."

Franky narrowed his eyes, almost scowling. He turned down to the girl sleeping on his right shoulder. "Then why'd you lie to her?" He asked, wanting to know why he'd just straight up lie about someone's life, their own family no less.

* * *

Marie clung tightly onto Jinbe for dear life so her lightweight body wouldn't just drag away from the gigantified lamp. And yet, she was still smiling. Are we sure she was born a Celestial Dragon?

"How long are we gonna fall for?!" She asked Jinbe, yelling as loud as she could with all of the turbulence surrounding them.

Jinbe, holding her to his shoulders with his left hand, responded back with his own yell, "Not sure! Probably a few minutes considering how heavy the Bondola is!" As he expected, the bombs weren't strong enough to send them flying forward, but more than enough to seperate them from the Red Line. No wait, _hoped_. He'd been betting with Lady Luck this whole time with the hope that he'd be able to break everyone out. And from what's happened so far, it seems she wants them to be free as well, so that was nice of her.

Jinbe turned his head back toward her. "You alright back there?!" He asked, concerned if she was afraid of becoming the urn tumbling off the shelf.

The child's smile only brightened. "Are you kidding?!" She laughed incredulously. "I never felt this _alive_ before!" She held her arms out wide as they sailed down through the whitewash of clouds under the pale moonlight, unable to quench her excitement for the life of her. This was what it was to _live_, to experience the thrills of the world.

Jinbe chucked to himself. "I bet, seeing as you've been stuck up there your whole life." He wasn't wrong either. She truly was glad she found the two Fish-Men; had she not, she would've never found out what the world truly had beyond the fancy city and disgustingly green forest. She wouldn't realise that she was born human. Not as a World Noble, but a _human_.

She looked back down to the whale shark. "Jinbe?" She asked softly.

Having heard his name, "Hm?"

Marie hugged tightly around Jinbe's head, closing her eyes and just resting there. "Thank you," She whispered. "For all of this…"

Even with how quietly she mumbled that Jinbe heard her loud and clear. "I wouldn't call it anything less than an honour, Marie."

* * *

Brook sighed, placing down the final three cards, unturned. He was almost done, too. "I'll be entirely honest with you if that's what you want." He offered.

Franky flexed about the fingers on his right hand. "If you didn't, I'd break your skull in." He responded.

Brook chuckled again. "It's always nice to know people still care about the truth." He muttered, holding his hands together on the table. "You see, it's not about me knowing whether or not Jinbe will succeed or not. As I said, I do not know the future."

Franky didn't quite seem satisfied. "That doesn't explain why you'd just lie to our faces." He retorted.

Brook nodded. "That it does not," He agreed. "To be honest, I have no logical defence on my behalf."

Now Franky was even more confused than before. "Huh?!"

* * *

The inside of the Bondola wasn't dragging everyone to the ceiling like one would expect; that'd only happen when it suddenly halted momentum. However, it _was_ shaking incredibly violently, far more than a normal person would be comfortable with. Some larger or more straightforward folk would call it a decent all-body massage, but it was the context that really unnerved the crowd as it did.

Baz leaned against the wall to the inside of the Bondola. "I truly do hope this attempt pays off," He muttered. "Despite how futile it appears to be."

Kemp just chuckled, joining him on the wall. "Bah, it'll be fine!" He reassured, charisma far higher than it should be.

Baz raised an eyebrow at it, actually. "I'm confused as to how you're so optimistic at a time like this." He wondered. "You do realise there's a likely chance we don't survive this escape, yes?"

Kemp laughed harder. "Of course I know the stakes here; I'm practically pissing my pants!" He shot back. "Let's be real here mate, I'd much rather risk dying trying to escape a hellhole like Mariejois than stay there and go through all seven levels before my head becomes a trophy that nobody notices," He turned to the rest of the slaves, some determined, some afraid, others indifferent. "And I'll bet you that no one else would disagree with me on that!"

Baz smiled to himself, unable to disagree himself. "That is indeed true." He concurred. And why wouldn't he? The descent down the Red Line was all but a positive. Live? You get to start over fresh, able to let go of everything here but the mark and PTSD, both of which could be hidden. Die? They wouldn't give the satisfaction to the World Nobles nor World Government of having any slaves, being that all of them had perished. Either way, the douchebags lost. All that mattered was if this clan of refugees won or not.

To pass the time, Baz asked a question that'd been on his mind since overhearing a few conversations among the Fish-Man slaves during his time here. "Pardon me, Kemp?"

Said basa turned to his left. "Sup?"

Baz straightened his bandana. "I'm curious; what's Fish-Man Island like?" He inquired, having heard tales from the others.

Kemp broke into a smile. "I don't know what's happened over the six years I've been captured, but I'll deal out some old tales from way back when." He replied. Telling a human about his home'd be interesting. It may turn against him later, but he was too excited from the fall to care.

* * *

"All that I _do_ have is my utmost confidence in Jinbe and Tiger succeeding." Brook answered the local inventor.

Franky's eye twitched as he slowly put Robin's head onto one of the pillows on the lounge. "Brook, listen, I _super_ want the two fish-dudes to pull this jig off, yeah; just as much as anyone else who knows 'em." He then sighed. "But dude, faith alone ain't gonna cut it. Even I know that."

* * *

With whatever black magic fuckery he was using, Tiger stood against the railing as the Bondola descended into the Blue Sea below. _Without_ getting sent straight up from the fall.

From the explosion, the whole vessel had slowly rotated counterclockwise. Probably from the bombs being a little too far right. But the incident wasn't in vain, as there were its disgustingly picky benefits.

"In the dead cold of the dark night, under the bright, pale moonlight…" Tiger muttered to himself, staring at the giant white orb as it lightened skin and scale alike. "Above the surface of the ocean, below the hell in the skies, where nothing but freedom lies ahead for all that have been done wrong." He gave himself a small smile. "We have given them a second chance, and I _will_ make sure they see it through."

A voice chuckled behind him. "Didn't think you'd be the poetic type." Tiger turned around to see a familiar face, which he'd seem to be doing a lot recently.

"No, Giuseppe, can't say I am." He replied, sighing before turning back to the outside world. "I've been thinking about something."

Giuseppe crossed his arms. "And what's on your mind?" he wondered.

Tiger sighed. "When we land back on the ocean, my plan was to return each of you to your homes, or if not possible, a safe enough haven to reside you in," His eyes narrowed a bit. "But the more I think about it, the more I realise that those _bastards_ will just hunt everyone down separately"

Giuseppe chuckled. "You seriously thought if we escaped their line of sight for 24 hours that they'd call it a day?" He remarked.

Tiger sighed. Again. "Not quite," He answered honestly. "What I _did_ realise was how desperate they are to save face. They'd hunt down everyone that escaped to the ends of the world to cover up an incident that 'never happened'. And even then, they'd simply try and make them all wanted if that were to fail." Tiger groaned, leaning on the railing. "What did you all do deserve this…?"

"We didn't." A new voice. Tiger turned around again. Another familiar face.

"Evening, Jack." Giuseppe greeted with the laziest hand he could muster.

Jack smiled back. "Hi, G." He replied with a wave of his own. He then turned back to Tiger. "We didn't do anything at all," He continued. "All we did was live. All that we did was just be _us_ before getting taken away by..._them_." He shuddered at that last part. "I was just a fisherman in the Grand Line, and all that G had done was steal _back_ his wife's ring from bandits."

"We were _engaged_, J." Giuseppe corrected. He slipped down the wall besides Tiger, hand on his head. "God, I hope she's alright," He muttered. "Wouldn't be surprised if she's remarried by now."

"Come on, G," A chuckle was loosened by Jack. "I'm sure she wouldn't do that. I mean, you didn't _try_ to end up here, did you?"

"Hell no I didn't!" Giuseppe retorted. "Who would volunteer to wear that hoof anyhow?!" He jabbed a thumb to his back, likely where he was marked. "Even if I _did_ have Lady Luck on my side and I found her again, you really think she'd stay with me after having death's kiss on my back?!"

Jack kneeled down in a crouch, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. "If she truly loved you to the bitter end, she wouldn't worry about that nonsense." He assured, tapping two fingers to the hoof on his left bicep.

Giuseppe grabbed the larger man's shoulders and shook them in a frantic manner. "But what about her _safety_?!" He shot back. "I'm gonna be hunted down as a dog that escaped the backyard! Why would I want her involved in that?!"

Throughout their conversation, Tiger had listened carefully to the problem at hand, one that he also literally had upon his chest: the Hoof of the Flying Dragon; the mark of the World Nobles' slaves. When a new one was brought in, they had a mark of a simple hoof burned into them with a branding iron, a large circle with three small isosceles triangles above and one below. When anybody had this mark burned into their skin, they were regarded as lower than dirt, worse than scum, the _trash of the world_.

From what Tiger had heard from humans on his travels, nobody wanted anything to do with a former slave. One repugnant quote that flew into his ear had been that "Slaves don't have names." Human or fellow fish, these poor people weren't even treated as living beings. All that the world saw them as were objects with tongues that they 'didn't deserve'.

As he was reminded of this by his fellow two escapees, he had an idea; why not hide it? But no. That wouldn't work. Once something is burned into one's skin with an iron, it's stuck there. The heat of the brander scars one's skin or scale for as long as they live. This, in turn, leads him to his current plan.

Why not cover it up? Why not brand something _over_ the hoof with a new meaning?

* * *

"Yohohoho," Brook chuckled. "I'm well aware that hope would not affect the outcome, Franky."

Franky sighed, head in left hand, elbow to knee, right hand shrugging. "Then why?" He asked, still perplexed by the words of the dead living.

Brook just took a sip of his coffee before he chuckled again. "I know not through literal knowledge that Jinbe will succeed," He replied, taking the final three cards in hand; a queen and two kings.

* * *

Jinbe grunted to himself as he saw the clear ocean below him grow ever closer. It may look beautiful at night, despite where it leads, but that wasn't the point of focus right now. In an approximate minute, they'd be hitting the ocean's face like raw concrete in the big city, which may not destroy the Bondola, but it certainly won't be as kind with its passengers.

His eyebrows slipped down his sideburns, his eyes following suit. He had full confidence that he had trained hard enough to pull this off; strong enough to save these poor souls. But...there was that one spark in the back of his mind that kept buzzing...

_What if he couldn't?_

Would all of the slaves' lives be in vain? Would they have gone through hell's gates only to meet its neighbours within the hour? Of course, it was a positive that those bastards would never take back these people's lives on a pike and chain, but that meant nothing for the slaves themselves if their final moments were all but the same as their years prior; cold, dark, painful, ceaseless misery. And their eternity yonder would be no better.

Could he really prevent that?

"Jinbe," A familiar voice yanked him out of his pocket-sized crisis. "You alright?"

He only chuckled, not wanting the girl to take part in the tug-o-war. "Never better." He assured, turning to the ocean below. It had grown even bigger ever faster.

"No."

...that was _not_ what he had planned to hear. "Huh?"

"You looked depressed," Marie pointed out, surprising Jinbe at how quickly she noticed. Actually, [REDACTED], despite her age she was the smartest person he knew. Of course, she caught on. Why was he even surprised? "What's wrong?"

Jinbe chuckled again, looking at the girl dead in the eye. "Some moron in my head is asking what happens if this doesn't work." He explained. "I couldn't care less, though: 'do or die' I say."

As he turned back to the ocean before him, fast approaching, Marie looked ahead in a deep trance, thousands of yards in her vision. "'Do or die'..." she echoed.

Below her, Jinbe grunted a huff. It was time, and he only had one chance to pull this off. If he messed up, they're Sea King feed. But he wouldn't mess up. He _couldn't_.

With thirty seconds left as a rough estimate of his, Tiger bolted from the railing to the inner hall of the Bondola. With their confusion dulling slightly, Giuseppe and Jack followed suit.

"Brace yourselves, everybody!" He called out, bringing everybody's attention to him. "We're soon to hit the ocean below. Now hold on to something and prepare for whatever may come our way!"

With a nod, everyone grabbed onto either a railing inside or a brave few held tightly onto some of the stairs leading to the upper floor.

Tiger himself grabbed the railing beside the giant centre pillar, among others. He peered his head up to the ceiling. 'Jinbe,' He thought, eyes narrowing. 'You had better pull this off.'

* * *

Franky rose an eyebrow. "So what, you think it's because of his 'sheer determination' or some shit like that?" He sarcastically remarked, being that it was a massive cliché as is.

Placing down the first king, Brook casually nodded. "Actually, yes." He confirmed, making the inventor's face fall dead flat. Neither noticed Robin giving a small grin.

* * *

With around 25 seconds left before impact, Jinbe took a deep breath in, trying to accumulate as much focus as he could. Above him, Marie softly squeezed him, holding on whilst trying to distract him as minimally as she could manage.

'I have yet to perform such a _taxing_ technique...' The Fish-Man thought to himself. 'But for the sake of our freedom, I am willing to take that risk.'

He held his hands in a sort of orb-shape, eyes shut tight. With a grunt, he slowly brought his left arm back with a tightly clenched fist, his right arm outstretched grappling the air tightly.

"**Fish-Man Karate**…" He muttered, his voice reverberating through the falling sky. Marie slightly lowered herself behind his back; something's going to come up from the ocean, isn't it?

As Jinbe's free hand slowly closed, grabbing tighter onto what it may, the ocean below started to churn. It poured out onto itself slowly and shortly, the water below trying to break free into the open world above its own ceiling. As Jinbe groaned trying to maintain his focus and energy, the ocean, area of effect now shown, was beginning to spill harder and higher.

Five seconds left.

Suddenly, Jinbe's eyes shot wide open, his hand clamping tightly. The moment his grip solidified, the ocean grew violent, active; yearning to _soar_. And soar it would; Jinbe turned around behind him, glaring into the skies above as he slowly brought his fist forward in an underarm arc. The very _instant_ his fist began to move, the ocean erupted into a gigantic current that followed the Fish-Man's arm. It was now obvious why Jinbe's hope was on this technique: the current was as big as the Bondola.

His fist opened up into a grapple as it reached past his torso, the water rushing past them, and _under the Bondola_. Finally, he released his throwing arc with a powerful grunt, the rapids erupting like fireworks behind the vessel as it roughly rode down the current, landing in the ocean below with a mighty splash.

From the moment the water went past them, Marie hadn't been able to stop smiling.

"**SALMON RUSH!**"

* * *

Brook placed down the queen on the pile of hearts above, followed shortly by the king. "Jinbe is just stubborn like that."


End file.
